Catégorie : Ventes

The concept of a “sales funnel” is a little misleading. After all, a real funnel is designed to catch and pour out every ounce of liquid you put into it. But not every lead that enters the top of your sales funnel will come out the other end as a customer—there’s bound to be some pretty significant spillage along the way.

That doesn’t mean your sales and marketing teams should settle for a slow drip of conversions, though. With the right methods, your business can generate more leads at the top of the funnel and more deals at the bottom.

In this comprehensive guide to sales funnels, you’ll learn:

What is a sales funnel?

Sales funnel definition: A sales funnel is a sales and marketing tool used to illustrate the steps of the customer journey. It’s also often referred to as a “purchase funnel,” “customer funnel,” “marketing funnel,” or “conversion funnel.”

A sales funnel is a visual roadmap of your customer’s journey.

The concept of a sales funnel has been around for a long time. According to (possibly apocryphal) legend, it was a man named “Elias St. Elmo Lewis” who in 1898 first proposed the “AIDA model.” The oldest acronym in sales, AIDA is a four-step sales funnel model that charts the customer’s journey from initial awareness to eventual purchase.

1. Awareness: A prospective buyer first discovers the existence of a product or service.
2. Interest: The buyer actively expresses interest in said product or service.
3. Desire: The buyer decides they want it.
4. Action: The purchase is finally made, and the prospect becomes a customer

Obviously, not every potential customer makes it all the way through the AIDA process.

Think of it this way—hundreds of people may notice a sidewalk sign for a restaurant as they walk past it. But only a certain percentage will be interested enough to stop and read the daily special; a smaller percentage will be hungry for that meal; an even smaller percentage will actually go inside and order it.

The number of people in your sales funnel naturally narrows at each stage of the funnel—that’s why it’s visualized as a funnel.

While the AIDA model has long provided a foundation for sales and marketing teams, it’s been adapted or elaborated upon over the years. For example, the basic B2B sales funnel features five steps and the novel “Evaluation” and “Engagement” stages.

The “Evaluation” stage accounts for the fact that clients typically take more time to deliberate internally before making a purchase. “Engagement” refers to the sales agent’s responsibility to continue nurturing leads during negotiations and contracting.

Of course, even the five-stage sales funnel is too simple for some companies. That’s why organizations often develop their own funnels to clearly chart the typical path that their buyers take on their way to becoming customers.

A well-defined sales funnel should allow your business to develop a better understanding of your prospects. Identifying where prospects are situated in the funnel can indicate how much interest they have in your products or services. And tracking prospects as they move through the funnel can help sales reps gauge how to best approach them.

Knowing how to treat a prospect at each stage of the sales process is critical to success. You don’t want to lose a potential customer by giving them the “hard sell” when they’re still at the top of the funnel. Instead, the goal is to gently nudge a prospect from one stage to the next.

How sales and marketing teams fit into the sales funnel

Sales reps aren’t fully responsible for every stage of the sales funnel. Your marketing department also plays a large role, especially when it comes to generating awareness and interest.

The most productive funnels are found at companies where the sales and marketing teams work hand in glove. And the best way to achieve marketing and sales alignment is to establish shared criteria and a common language around the sales funnel.

First, create a system for scoring leads so your marketing team knows when to pass a prospect to sales. A lead scoring system attaches points to a prospect’s characteristics or activities. For example, a B2B company might assign more points to a lead if he’s an executive versus a manager. Similarly, a SaaS provider would award a lead more points for clicking on a pricing page than for clicking on a blog post.

With a scoring system, your marketing team can determine whether a lead is worth pursuing. If the buyer appears worthwhile, they become a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL). At that point, the lead is passed from marketing to sales. If the sales team agrees that the lead is a good fit, they become a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL), also known as a Sales Accepted Lead (SAL).

Sales and marketing need to be on the same page when it comes to qualifying leads. One way to clearly define MQL and SQL standards is to spell them out in a service level agreement (SLA). An SLA outlines how sales and marketing should work together. Aside from clarifying the criteria for scoring MQLs and SQLs, an SLA can also designate the time frame and process that each team must follow.

For example, a lead’s web activity and content engagement might qualify them as an MQL. At that point, the MQL is referred to sales, which must either accept the lead or send it back to marketing within 24 hours.

Keep track of your sales funnel to see how well your sales and marketing teams are converting prospects. The number of buyers who advance from one stage to the next is a good measure of efficiency.

Full-funnel tracking can also showcase which portions of your sales funnel need more work. For example, your sales funnel report may show that a lot of incoming leads are being qualified as MQLs. But if only a fraction of those MQLs are converting into SQLs or sales, it may indicate that your lead-scoring model is fundamentally flawed.

How to create leads and nurture them throughout the sales funnel

All sales funnels follow the same general pattern. Every funnel has a top, middle, and bottom—and similar expectations for what needs to be done in each phase.

Nurturing a lead all the way through the sales funnel is no easy feat. Marketing and sales teams need to know how to reach their target audience and how to establish an ongoing relationship with buyers.

Top of funnel: Attract attention and generate interest

The customer journey ideally begins before a buyer even thinks about becoming a customer. So, creating awareness of your brand is always the first step in any sales funnel—you need to figure out how to get on a buyer’s radar.

Consumers usually learn about a company by seeing or hearing an advertisement. Traditional advertising channels—such as billboards and television commercials—cast a pretty wide net. But today’s technology allows for increasingly targeted advertising. For example, companies can now purchase customer data that allows them to target their online ads to individuals with specific traits or interests. (That’s why after you buy hiking boots from one company, you start seeing Instagram ads for another company’s canteens.)

Marketers can also capture the attention of prospects through the lead generation process, which contains four key steps:

• A potential buyer becomes aware of a brand through one of its marketing channels, such as a blog article or social media post.
• The content includes a call to action (CTA), such as a “Start free trial” button or a link to a downloadable piece of gated content.
• Clicking on the CTA takes the visitor to a lead generation form, which requires them to provide personal or professional information in exchange for access to the gated content or special offer.
• The prospect accesses the desired content or offer by filling out the form, providing valuable details such as their name, email address, position, and company.

After capturing a lead’s info, the marketing team should be able to qualify them. If the prospect becomes an MQL, they’re passed on to sales to hopefully become an SQL.

There are several lead generation channels that companies can take advantage of, including:

1. Blogs

   The Content Marketing Institute’s 2020 B2B Benchmarks Report found that 70 percent of B2B brands use content marketing to help generate leads. So if you don’t have one already, start publishing a blog that’s relevant to your customer base.

   Create content focused on the core topics that you want your brand to embody, and optimize it to rank for related keywords. Make sure the articles are engaging and easy to share on social media, too. You should also include a CTA near the beginning of the blog, as some visitors won’t read the entire article.

2. Email

   There are two types of email marketing campaigns: outbound and inbound.

   Outbound marketing involves sending emails to buyers who have not initiated contact with your brand. These unsolicited messages typically don’t perform well, but there are ways to increase open rates for “cold emails” as well as free email templates you can follow.

   Meanwhile, inbound email marketing involves sending messages to prospects who have shown some interest in your brand. Perhaps they accessed gated content or signed up for a newsletter. These types of prospects tend to be more receptive and are often easier to target. For example, you might design unique email drip campaigns to send to different customer personas. Or, you might create a newsletter with information that speaks directly to a prospect’s pain points.

3. Web

   Don’t forget that your brand’s website also functions as a lead generation channel. Potential buyers are apt to look at pricing pages, product descriptions, customer testimonials, and other sections of your site. Make sure every page includes a simple and direct CTA, such as a “Download a free trial,” “Book a meeting,” or “Talk to sales” button.

   A lead’s web activity can tell you a lot about their level of intent to purchase. For example, visiting a pricing page multiple times is probably enough to establish a prospect as an MQL.

4. Social media

   Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter have become multi-purpose tools for many companies. They allow businesses to gauge public perception, promote their brand, and provide quick and easy customer service.

   Paid social could play a big role in your lead generation efforts. You can pay to use cookies to track the buyers visiting your website, then target those prospects with promotional tweets and posts on their social media feeds. This type of customized marketing is more cost-effective than paying to promote one post to a large, indiscriminate group of consumers.

   Of course, there are also ways to spread the word on social media without spending a dime. For example, employees often share their company’s blog posts on LinkedIn to generate awareness and interest in their own networks.

   No matter which lead generation channel you choose, it’s important to tailor the content to the buyer personas you’re hoping to convert. You don’t want to lose a lead’s attention by sharing information that they won’t find relevant.

   First, find out what these potential customers want to see from your brand. B2B brands can often learn from their existing leads by examining requests for proposals (RFPs), for instance. Studying the characteristics and habits of your own customer base can also help you define your ideal prospect.

Middle of funnel: Nurture and connect with leads

Pushing leads from the top to the middle of the funnel is a delicate and often lengthy process. It takes an average of 84 days to move a B2B consumer from the awareness stage to the evaluation phase of the sales funnel. Companies often need to repeatedly demonstrate their value just to earn a prospect’s consideration (let alone their business).

This is where drip email campaigns can help maintain a lead’s interest over an extended period of time. Try to send them content that’s designed to engage and educate their particular customer profile. You can use a CRM tool to schedule these email campaigns and to measure their success rate.

You don’t want to overwhelm top-of-funnel leads with too many promotional emails at once. But if you’re driving a more established lead further down the funnel, try a few of these tactics:

• Experiment with different subject lines. Continually A/B test various options to see which subject lines lead to the best open and click-through rates.
• Customize your message. It’s best to personalize sales emails as much as possible. Always address the recipient by name, and if possible, ditch generic opening lines in favor of something unique to the reader. For example, “Hey Susan, I was excited to hear about your company’s new initiative…”
• Keep the text short. Brevity is the soul of sales emails. Studies have shown that messages between 50 and 125 words tend to have the best response rates.
• Always end with a clear CTA. Let the lead know what they can do to keep the conversation going. It could be as simple as including a link to your calendar and asking them to schedule a five-minute conversation.

Ideally, a well-nurtured lead will eventually connect with a sales rep. During that first interaction, it’s imperative that the rep demonstrates an empathetic understanding of the lead’s pain points.

Research your lead in order to gain a better understanding of their particular situation. Then, develop a script for explaining the unique ways in which your product or service can help solve the challenges they’re facing. In the initial call, quickly point out your value and your ability to address their needs. Be sure to also leave plenty of time for the buyer to ask their own questions.

Sales reps should use their CRM system to document the questions and challenges that leads typically bring up during their introductory meetings. Going forward, reps can reference that information to anticipate upcoming questions and set first-call agendas.

Once you’ve established a real relationship with the lead, don’t let it fizzle out. Without being overbearing, be sure to send detailed, personalized follow-up emails every so often to keep the conversation going.

Bottom of funnel: Convert and retain customers

Even if a deal seems inevitable, it’s critical that sales reps continue guiding a lead through the final stages. Easing up on a potential customer towards the bottom of the sales funnel can cost you a hard-earned win. Instead, usher your leads across the finish line by using the ASK process:

• Align priorities. Once again, show your lead that you fully understand their pain points and reiterate how you can solve them.
• Secure a commitment. Remind the lead of what they stand to gain, and offer to answer any lingering questions.
• Keep your relationship alive. Even if they ultimately say no, be sure to follow-up with that lead at a future date. They may come around if their situation changes down the road. And if not, they still might offer valuable insight into how you can improve your sales process.

If you actively engage your lead, you increase the chances of conversion and establish a potentially fruitful, long-lasting relationship. In some cases, those relationships can prove even more profitable than the initial deal.

For many B2B, SaaS, and subscription-based businesses, the sales funnel doesn’t really end with the purchase. Once a lead becomes a customer, the sales rep turns their focus towards retention. Reps need to keep in touch with customers to make sure they’re still satisfied and to identify potential upsell opportunities.

Even if you’re not concerned with customer churn, almost all companies benefit from repeat business. Holding on to a loyal customer is always cheaper and easier than acquiring a new one. Happy customers are also more likely to provide referrals.

Sales reps should continually check in with existing customers by sending out surveys and follow-up emails. Try to find out what they like (and don’t like) about your product or service. If the relationship is strong enough, consider asking for a customer testimonial. You can also sweeten the pot by offering discounts or other rewards to customers who refer friends or post online reviews.

Elevate each aspect of the sales funnel with CRM software

You can enhance every stage of the sales funnel with CRM technology. A software solution like Zendesk Sell can help you automatically capture and score leads, schedule and personalize email campaigns, and document all prospect and customer interactions. Our sales CRM also helps you guide and track potential buyers as they graduate from leads to customers. It even provides funnel reports and countless metrics so you can measure and refine your process over time.

If your sales funnel is producing a slow drip of deals, try turning on the waterworks with Zendesk.

As the summer gets into full swing and Q3 approaches, the familiar lead generation slump hits. We’ve all been there: people start taking vacations, stop answering their phones, and your sales team starts getting antsy for more SQLs. Oh, and there’s also the whole cookieless internet thing, where first-party data collection on websites is more important than ever.

It’s prime time to set up some fresh, new lead magnets!

Read on so you can:

• Learn what a lead magnet is.
• Get inspired by 25 lead magnet ideas and examples.
• Understand what you’ll need in order to create lead magnets for your business.

With these tips and examples, you’ll be well on your way to attracting more people to your business that you can convert into customers.

What is a lead magnet?

First, let’s define exactly what a lead magnet is.

Lead magnets are an incentivized marketing tool for increasing form fills. Typically, a business offers something free, but valuable, that target prospects will be willing to obtain in exchange for their information so that you can continue building the relationship. Plus, that information is all first-party data, which is becoming crucial in a cookieless world.

Lead magnets are often associated with the top of the funnel, but they can actually be used at every stage. After all, new prospects can slide into your funnel at any point. Or if they are entering in at the top, you’ll need a way to keep them engaged and moving along through. So consider lead magnets to be offers that both attract leads to your funnel and keep them there.

Some of the core categories of lead magnets include:

• Educational materials
• Proprietary data
• Prize-based incentives
• Time-sensitive information
• Free consultations and trials

As you can see, lead magnets can come in all sorts of flavors, and as marketers, it’s our job to pick the right type to attract, engage, and convert our prospects. So let’s look at some examples and ideas.

Quick note on these lead magnet ideas

I’ve categorized the ideas by stage of funnel, but I also know that every business has a different funnel and customer journey, so adapt these ideas accordingly.

Also, many of the content-based lead magnets are versatile. For example, a downloadable checklist could be used at the top of the funnel (wedding planning checklist) and in the middle (questions to ask before choosing a wedding planner).

The image below is top-of-funnel checklist, from a process management software company: “Effective Onboarding in 31 Steps.” A mid-funnel checklist for this same company might be something like “10 Features to Look for in an SOP Automation Software Provider.”

Top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas

Lead magnets are the most fun at the top of the funnel. This gives you the most creative leeway to come up with fun ideas to entice your target audience while showing off a fun side of your brand.

These lead magnets can be topically broad compared to your product or service—but related in some sense. Remember, this is the awareness stage of your funnel. Your prospects may not even know you exist!

You’ll definitely want to put these leads through a nurture flow so that the ones that reach sales reps have intent to buy.

For top-of-funnel lead magnets, you don’t need a form requiring details. Just first name, last name, and email will do. Make sure that each lead magnet is properly tagged with a lead source so you can track the ROI down the road.

1. Giveaways

First up, giveaways. There is plenty of finesse that goes into planning and executing a giveaway, but we won’t go into all that here. What you need to know is that giveaways are great lead magnets!

Get your prospects in the door with a variety of giveaway options, from free NBA tickets to a discounted annual subscription to your product. Keep in mind that the quality of your leads will vary depending on how relevant your offering is to your product or service.

While Instagram giveaways are a great way to expand your reach and brand awareness, you’re not going to get any leads unless you have entrants DM you with their email addresses. Instead, create a landing page on your website for the giveaway, and then share that link in your social media posts.

2. Face-to-face field marketing

Field marketers interact directly with potential customers, such as at trade shows, networking events, and conferences. They employ a mix of sales and marketing expertise to educate, inform, and persuade prospects to engage with your brand. Have your field marketers collect emails to keep in touch! You’re not likely to get a high volume of leads in this manner, but the quality of the leads will be excellent.

3. Influencer collaborations

Seems like everyone and their mom is trying to be an influencer these days. Who can blame them, with all the TikTok and YouTube fame being tossed around? This is the perfect time to test out lead generation through micro-influencers.

Find an influencer in your niche, sponsor a couple posts, and collect your leads. Remember to tag them properly, especially if you choose to pay influencers on a commission or per-lead basis.

4. Blog post downloads

Visitors coming to your blog are most likely in the awareness and information-gathering stage, so focus on free and easy offers here. Free and easy for you too! Simply offer to send the post (or an abridged version) to their inbox so they can read later. All they need to do is fill out their email address. How convenient!

5. Free tools

If you didn’t already notice, we offer a variety of free tools for business owners and marketers, and it’s a win-win: They get free professional assistance that will help them get more sales, and we acquire leads who might actually increase our sales as well. High-five.

You can try out the Google Ads Grader, Facebook Ads Grader, and Google My Business Grader any time! (See what we did there?)

More top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas:

6. How-to and examples content (i.e., a free guide on how to write a networking email, or networking email examples)

7. Podcasting

8. Idea generators

9. Cheatsheets

A lead magnet about lead magnets. Whoah.

Mid-funnel lead magnet ideas

Okay, this is when lead magnets get a little more serious. Prospects entering into the middle of your funnel are aware of and interested in your business. Mid-funnel lead magnets should be at least slightly related to your product or brand, but if you’re at the mid-to-top level, you can still dance around it a little bit more.

For mid-funnel lead magnets, you may want to ask for more information than just email address. This may include name, company name, email, and whatever qualifiers will help you. For example, I like to ask my prospects to select with compliance framework they are interested in. This informs the content I send their way down the line and helps my sales team pitch more accurately.

And make sure you continue nurturing these leads! Your sales team might be eager to get on the phone with these more qualified leads, but tag them and place them into a nurture stream where they belong. Don’t scare them off with heavy-handed sales tactics.

10. Webinars

Webinars are all the rage these days. I’m a big fan of virtual lunch-and-learns, particularly featuring how-tos or trending topics. Even better, any webinar can be recorded and reused, or emailed out as part of a nurture campaign.

If you’re hosting a webinar, make sure to ask your participants what questions they’d like answered during the session–you can glean more engagement and information from leads that way.

11. Checklists

If your product helps streamline a solution or gives your team intimate knowledge into a niche process, checklists give you a high-level, low-effort way to share that know-how. Hot tip: downloadable checklists typically perform well in Google ad campaigns.

12. Free templates

I’m a sucker for resume templates. I can’t help it; every time I am editing a resume, I need to find a new design. And as a result, a crazy amount of companies hawking resume templates have my email address.

Offer a template for something that you would consider yourself an expert on. For example, how to design a project management flow. Or a notion.io content marketing calendar (I’m in the market for one!).

Templates are more mid-funnel compared to examples, since the prospect is not just looking for ideas anymore, but ready to put pen to paper and get down to it.

More mid-funnel lead magnet ideas

13. Original data reports

14. Product comparisons

15. Email courses

Bottom-of-funnel lead magnet ideas

These lead magnet ideas are for the cream-of-the-crop prospects. They might already know your brand and trust your content. This is the opportunity to show that your product is right for them.

16. Case studies

Case studies can be a snoozefest. It’s easy to go wrong with these, but if you add a little extra ‘oomph’ to the content, you could have a great download on your hands.

While most companies will share a case study with a title like, “X company helped Y company increase revenue by 50%! See how we did it.” And there is nothing wrong with that. But if you take the time to insert actionable data and insights into your case study, it’ll make it worth an email submission.

17. Product picker

This might be my favorite type of lead magnet. I know, you probably thought I was going to say whitepapers were my bread-and-butter but WHEW. I love quizzes.

Why are they so great? It’s the best time to show off your authority on a niche topic in an engaging way. This is great for leads who are ready to buy, but don’t know what exactly they want. My company, Laika, has a quiz to see which compliance framework is right for your business.

18. Partner referral discounts

You’ll likely need to get any type of discount cleared with your department heads and sales teams. But discounts are powerful hooks; everyone loves to save money.

I recommend reaching out to your partners to let them know that anyone who submits their information with a specific code or through a certain page will receive a percent off the purchase of your product.

You can also do this with customers who have had a good experience! Referrals are like good reviews, they hold a lot of weight with prospects doing investigation into a new company.

19. Event tickets

Everyone loves free stuff. I had some coworkers who created email addresses specifically to enter contests to win concert tickets. While I hope your prospects won’t do the same, you could run a promotion where those who sign up for a free demo or consultation will be entered into a random drawing for free tickets to a conference.

You decide the event, and let the leads pour in.

20. Early access

Releasing a new feature? Testing new copy or UX? Advertise it to prospects. You can learn about their behaviors while shaping your offering to their exact tastes.

Plenty of mobile games and apps already utilize beta versions and early access. If you offer an app in the Google Play Store or the Apple Store, you can enter it onto a list for users to access in beta. Even Disneyland has extended early hours for visitors to get early access to the rides!

21. Free trial

Trial your product or service for free, for a limited time only! There are plenty of examples of free trials out there, but the trick is to make yours seem exclusive, urgent, and the best way to get a taste of your amazing company.

22. Newsletter referrals

By now, most people have heard of The Skimm. They grew their subscribers in a big way through referrals! You could track how many referrals you had from a unique link and get rewarded along the way.

More bottom-funnel lead magnet ideas

23. Discounts or sales promotions

24. Free shipping

25. Free quote or consultation

How to create a lead magnet for your business

Assuming you want to start generating more leads, I’m going to finish off with tips on creating lead magnets for your prospects.

For the actual lead magnet, you’ll need:

Make sure your landing page copy and design matches the original offer, as well as your CTA. For example, if you’re luring prospects in with a promise of 15% off for subscribing to your email list, your CTA after filling out the form should be “get my 15% off coupon.”

I also recommend a website pop-up tool. There are plenty of platforms today that enable you to create tasteful popups and use specific criteria to trigger them—such as page their on, topic of blog post they’re reading, whether or not they’re a returning visitor, where they came in from, and more.

And finally, since you’re going to be generating more leads now, you’ll first want to invest in marketing automation software to track, segment, and nurture them. In this remote world, I recommend Marketo, Hubspot, or ActOn.

Lead magnet ideas [recap]

Here are the 25 lead magnet ideas and examples covered in this post:

1. Giveaways
2. Face-to-face field marketing
3. Influencer collaborations
4. Blog post downloads
5. Free tools
6. How-to and examples content
7. Podcasting
8. Idea generators
9. Cheatsheets
10. Webinars
11. Checklists
12. Templates
13. Original data reports
14. Product comparisons
15. Email courses
16. Case studies
17. Product pickers
18. Partner referral discounts
19. Event tickets
20. Early access
21. Free trials
22. Newsletter referrals
23. Discounts and promo codes
24. Free shipping
25. Free quote or consultation

Have any tried and true lead magnet ideas that we missed? Share your landing pages and forms; we want to sign up!

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Most of our clients are digital marketing agencies (like you?).

And so far, we’ve built hundreds of agency sales funnels for them.

Some of those clients ask us to build their sales funnel for their agency (and for their clients too).

And some other clients come to us with already-built sales funnels and ask us for a “diagnosis” of why they’re not converting.

We’ve found there were key reasons (repeated patterns) why those agency sales funnels weren’t succeeding.

And today, I’m going to reveal them to you.

In this article, I’ll tell you:

• How to create your own agency sales funnel—and the strategies that’ll get you results, minimize relying on networking and word of mouth—and ultimately scale your agency.

• The key ingredients that, regardless of your target market, will make your agency sales funnel work.

• Plus you get to download our free proven-to-convert agency sales funnel template so you can copy it, take action on it, and start scaling your business.

In return, all I ask is for you to just email me about how your agency funnel performed. Fair?

Ok good, so here’s the first thing you need to know…

In a rush? Want to download this article as a PDF so you can easily take action on it later? Click here to download this article as a PDF guide.

 

 

To sell your services. Duh!

Your sales funnel is what’s going to accelerate your sales and guide your potential clients into the right path they need to take to click “Sign Up.”

Imagine a labyrinth for a second.

If you want to make your way through the labyrinth, you need to first start at one point and take the right path to successfully get out of there.

Without the right signs or with a dark path, you’ll only feel trapped and will want to look for the closest exit.

The same thing happens to prospects when they come across your website.

Without a sales funnel, they won’t know where to start, what path to take, and how to exit satisfied.

So if you’re wondering how to scale your digital marketing agency, then you need a sales funnel to sell your services. And to nurture the relationship with existing clients.

Alright.

Now that you know why you need an agency sales funnel, let’s see which are the key ingredients that’ll make your sales funnel strategy a money-making machine.

Key Ingredients Your Agency Sales Funnel Must Have

Like any successful recipe, your agency sales funnel requires a combination of ingredients that’ll make it work.

And in this recipe, the order matters. It matters a lot.

So if you’re looking to create a sales funnel for your digital marketing agency to get more clients, here are the key elements you need to put in place (I’ll tell you later where exactly to put them).

And I’ll be using the following agency sales funnel to walk you through it.

Want a bulletproof sales funnel that can sell your digital marketing agency services and convert clients like crazy?  Click here to download our proven-to-work agency sales funnel template for FREE now.

Lead Magnet Landing Page

First and foremost, you want to drive any traffic coming from any source.

Whether it’s from your Google AdWords strategy for lead generation. Or from your retargeting ads strategy. Or from your email list—you’ll drive all that traffic to your lead magnet landing page.

What is a lead magnet landing page anyway?

A lead magnet is designed to automatically bring leads right to your sales funnel’s entry point.

And with it, you can fill your pipeline with potential clients who are ready to buy whatever you’re selling. In the case of your agency, to sign up for your services.

But in order for your lead magnet to work, you have to get people to actually download it first.

And that’s where your lead magnet landing page comes in.

With a strategically designed and high-converting lead magnet landing page for your agency, you can pique the interest of your site visitors. You can entice them to click “Download.” And you can send them straight into your agency sales funnel.

All that to eventually get them to sign up for your service.

This first ingredient or stage in your agency sales funnel is super easy.

Because even if you don’t know how to create a lead magnet landing page from scratch, Leadpages—a digital marketing tool that we love—lets you do so in a snap.

Alright, now that you know what the first ingredient of our agency sales funnel is, then let’s move to the second one.

Have you guessed yet what it is?

Lead Magnet

You guessed it!

The next ingredient of your agency sales funnel is your lead magnet.

Your lead magnet attracts prospective clients just like metal to a magnet.

And by offering readers something for free, you create a proposal few can refuse.

However, you have to offer something they actually want and need.

Something valuable.

And when they get that “something valuable” they have to give you something in exchange: their email address (this will be how you’ll reach out to prospects).

This way, both parties win.

So if you’re wondering how to create a lead magnet from scratch, or don’t have the best lead magnet examples to get inspiration from, or don’t know how to get more downloads for your lead magnet—no worries.

I get how difficult it can be to create your first lead generation funnel. Especially when you don’t have a sales funnel template to download.

But all that is what we do best at AutoGrow. We can help you create your lead magnets, lead magnet landing page, copy for any project, and web development, design, and more.

Because let me tell you something, there are plenty of benefits of outsourcing your agency’s client work to a team of pros.

And with that being said, let’s see what comes after your prospective client downloads your valuable lead magnet.

Thank You/Congrats Page

Just like in any coaching sales funnel, eCommerce sales funnel, or any other sales funnel—right after your prospective client takes action on something, you *must* acknowledge that action and thank them.

Why?

Because it would be rude for you to do something nice for someone and no one thanks you for it, right?

The same happens with the leads that enter your funnel.

They need to be reminded that you care about them as individuals, not only about them taking their wallets out.

Right after they download your lead magnet, you’re going to thank them or congratulate them on that action they just took.

This will help you nurture the relationship with them. And you’ll “look nice” in front of them for simply being polite.

Now, your prospective client’s journey through your agency sales funnel is not over yet.

Saying “thank you” in this case isn’t a farewell. It’s actually a way to ask them to come back soon.

How?

By adding the next step on your agency sales funnel…

Sales Landing Page

This is the place where most of the magic will happen.

It’s exactly where prospects are going to learn more about you and your service.

What is it that you offer that you want clients to sign up for?

What is that huge problem you solve for them that no one else does?

How easy is it to sign up for your service?

What benefits will your clients get from signing up for your digital marketing agency’s service?

All that (and more) you’ll add it to this landing page.

You’ll basically introduce yourself more in-depth.

You’ll share your social proof.

And you’ll share your FAQs.

Because in the lead magnet stage, your prospects found out about you. But they didn’t know at that point who you really are.

So here’s where you’ll introduce yourself and persuade potential clients to stay loyal to your brand or to sign up for your service—whatever your goal is.

Because sometimes you don’t want a prospect to sign up right away if they’re not ready yet.

It’s like dating someone.

Right after you meet the person, you don’t expect them to want to marry you, right?

You expect to get to know the person a little better (and the person will get to know you too).

And when the right moment comes, then you’ll pop the question with a very shiny ring.

In the case of your sales page, the question is “Will you sign up for my service?”

And (luckily) you won’t need a ring for this.

Just a shiny, high-contrasting CTA button to make that prospect click!

Okay, just as it can happen in your personal life, that person may say “no” and leave.

But as heartbroken as you’ll be to see that someone special leave, you won’t give up completely.

Instead, you’ll reach out to them via an…

Email Follow-Up Sequence

Alrighty.

Lead magnet landing page—check ✔️.

Lead magnet—check ✔️.

Thank you page—check ✔️.

Sales page—check ✔️.

It’s now time for your email sequence follow-up to make those prospects who left your funnel come back.

At this point nothing is lost.

In fact, while email marketing is one of the oldest digital marketing channels, it’s actually one of the most effective ways to grow any business and reach out to leads who exited your funnel.

In fact, about 81% of small to medium businesses use email as their primary method for customer acquisition according to Emarys.

And it all comes down to returns.

The Data & Marketing Association found that the return on investment for strategic email marketing can be as high as 42:1.

Put another way, every $1 invested in email marketing can yield $42 in returns.

You need email marketing.

That’s why an email follow-up sequence in your agency sales funnel is necessary.

You see, you can build your first email sales funnel in less than 3 hours. That’s right!

Now, an email sales funnel—or email funnel—works in a similar way. Except, instead of nagging your potential leads with email after email, you’re nurturing the relationship with them.

You’re giving value, not being obnoxious. That’s what an effective email sales funnel does.

And when you know how to do it, you can convert more subscribers into clients than through any other marketing channel.

So your email follow-up sequence will be three-fold:

• It will nurture your relationship with an existing email subscriber.
• It will educate a potential client on the benefits of your service (or about the problem you help them solve).
• It will nudge them to make a purchase decision.

And it will follow our email sequence “Vacuum” formula to suck up new leads.

Plus, with email marketing automation tools like ActiveCampaign, you can even tag contacts based on actions they take (or don’t take) on your website.

This is a key ingredient of your agency sales funnel because people stop and read their email more than any other marketing channel.

In fact, Sleep Advisor found that nearly 1 out of every 5 Americans will check their email immediately after waking up.

On top of that, a whopping 55% of people will do the same within an hour after waking up.

So it’s clear that people love checking their email, right?

“But Matt, what about engagement?”

That’s another great point.

OptinMonster actually found that email has significantly higher engagement—even than social media.

Like almost 6.5X higher engagement.

Source

And if you personalize the emails you send to your prospects, the results will be even better.

In fact, a study by Upland Software, marketers found that there are some huge benefits (like increase in open rates) that go along with greater email personalization.

Source

So higher open rates means more potential clients signing up for your digital marketing service.

So now you know you need to reach out to prospects via an email sequence.

But you can also do so via an…

Exit Pop-Up

Ok, imagine your prospect navigating through your site for a sec.

But then they exit your website and never ever visit again.

If that’s the person from my analogy above that you’re about to ask to marry or to keep dating and they say no—you gotta make them change their minds.

So you should persuade them that there’s no one like you 😎. And that leaving your site is their worst decision.

But don’t push it though. You don’t want to seem too needy or salesy.

So in order to gain back that potential client, add an exit pop-up to your landing pages. And literally tell them “Hey, before you go, here’s something you should know first…”

In all likelihood, you’ve probably lost 10s, 100s, or even 1000s of lead just like that potential client because you didn’t try one more time to get them to see value in your services.

So solve that problem by adding an exit pop-up.

This will only be shown to potential clients who are navigating through your site and are about to exit a landing page.

And once you gain them back, you can now end up convincing them to sign up for your service and redirect them to your…

Checkout Page

After your prospects are ready to sign up for your service on your sales page where they learned a lot about you, you’ll redirect them to your checkout page.

Here’s where your clients will actually become clients.

They’ll add their billing information. And finally, they’ll start uncovering the benefits of being your digital marketing agency’s client!

But Your Digital Marketing Agency Sales Funnel Doesn’t End Here…

Have you ever heard “Recycle, reduce, reuse”? It means:

• Reduce the amount of waste you produce.
• Reuse items as much as you can before replacing them.
• Recycle items wherever and whenever possible.

Those same principles apply to your digital marketing sales funnel.

After building your funnel and launching it, you need to iterate on it.

See what’s working and what’s not.

There are always plenty of funnel optimization tweaks you *should* do to boost conversions for your agency sales funnel.

And by iterating your agency sales funnel, you’ll be:

• Reducing the time you waste listening to marketing gurus who tell you they know “everything” about your agency.

• Reuse and tweak the assets you’ve built (like the key ingredients of your agency sales funnel listed above) before redoing them completely. (Again, apply the funnel optimization tweaks for this purpose first if you’re not seeing results right away).

• Recycle any useful content that you can repurpose for your audience when you can. For example, if your current lead magnet isn’t converting as you’ve hoped, then take that content and repurpose it for a different lead magnet type. If you were offering a long, boring ebook, then adapt that content to a checklist or short guide. Your lead magnet may not be converting not because of the content but because of the format.

Once you keep taking action on your agency sales funnel…

Once you keep using digital marketing agency tools to improve your funnel…

And once you keep facing the right way the challenges your agency goes through—then and only then, you’ll start seeing happy leads converting into hyper happy, satisfied clients.

And you’ll be scaling your business to the next level.

Conclusion

Want a bulletproof sales funnel that can sell your digital marketing agency services and convert clients like crazy? Click here to download our proven-to-work agency sales funnel template for FREE now.

Don’t you feel more confident about how to get more clients for your digital marketing agency?
Your agency sales funnel will simply help you design the right path to clients.

In this article, I listed down all the necessary ingredients that your agency sales funnel needs in order to convert more prospects into paying clients.

Once you put them together in the order I outlined above, you’ll get not only a client but a lead, email subscriber, and money-making funnel.

And to review, here are the key ingredients you need to put in place for your funnel:

• Lead magnet landing page
• Lead magnet
• Thank You or congrats page
• Sales page
• Exit-intent pop-up
• Email follow-up sequence
• Checkout page

Again, this is just your starting point to start converting more clients.

You can iterate on it, tweak it, and optimize it for better results. And of course, tailor it to your agency’s needs.

And if you’re uncertain about how to execute on your agency sales funnel, AutoGrow can help you with all your digital marketing needs.

We can create not only your sales funnel but all of your clients’ funnels too.

We can create the strategy and execute on it.

And we can handle every single part of your agency and your clients’ businesses—from web development to copywriting, and from CRO to design and optimization.

But tell me something quickly, did you already know how to build a sales funnel for your digital marketing agency?

Which new stages or ingredients have you discovered from this article?

Will you download your agency sales funnel template to tailor it to your business?

Let me know in the comments below.

Keep AutoGrowin’, stay focused—and get ready for Christmas!

Want to sell stuff with your blog? Building an effective sales funnel is key. In this tutorial, we’ll share how to build a 5-part sales funnel for bloggers (with examples).

Blogs are a powerful tool that can establish trust with your audience, drive traffic, and sell your products and services.

Is your blog living up to its full potential?

I’m guessing, probably not.

A lot more goes into an effective blogging strategy than meets the eye. And as you’ve probably figured out by now, writing and publishing your blog posts is only half the battle.

You need the right strategy, not only to attract a readership, but also to turn those readers into customers.

Salesforce argues that a whopping 79% of marketing leads are never converted to sales. This is likely because 68% of businesses don’t have any clear sales funnel.

We don’t know the exact stats for blogs, but it’s likely WAY more dismal than that.

So if you’re tired of pumping out blog posts without seeing results, it’s time to change your strategy.

One such winning strategy, as you might have guessed, is a blog sales funnel.

What Exactly is a Blog Sales Funnel?

In the marketing world, the term “sales funnel” is tossed around so frequently that it sometimes sounds like nothing more than a trendy buzzword. In reality, it’s at the heart of authentic, impactful marketing.

Visualize a sales funnel like an actual funnel. (You know, the kind you use in the kitchen.)

The top of the funnel is where you gather an audience.

Then as the funnel gets tighter, your audience becomes interested in what you have to offer (middle of the funnel).

Eventually, they are “converted” into customers (bottom of the funnel).

That’s the simplified version. In the blogging world, there are actually 5 key stages you need to get blog readers to go through in order to reach the bottom of the funnel.

The 5 stages are:

1. Reader
2. Subscriber
3. Buyer
4. Enjoyer
5. Referrer

Don’t worry– we’ll break down each stage so you know exactly how to implement it on your own blog.

Oh, by the way: the right sales funnel can be completely automated, essentially creating a passive selling machine that works for your online strategy. So it’s particularly great for bloggers who want to make money without trading dollars for hours.

But real quick before we get into all that, let’s briefly cover why having a sales funnel is important for your blog…

Why Do You Need a Sales Funnel For Your Blog?

While you can learn more about the role of marketing when starting your business in How to Start a Business: A Complete Playbook, it’s important to take a closer look at the inner workings of sales funnels.

When your customers interact with your business, they’re on a journey. This journey starts with them learning about your business (awareness), and ends with them referring other users to your business

That’s right– you might be surprised that, in our 5 stages of the blog sales funnel, the funnel doesn’t actually end when users make a purchase.

If our only goal was to get one-time users to make a one-time purchase, we’d all be out of business really quickly.

If you want to create real relationships and value, you need to focus on long-term customer relationships.

What would you rather have for your business: a one-time customer who never interacts with your business again, or a raving fan excited to share their positive experience with others?

I’m guessing you want the latter, right?

When people first visit your blog, they’re just learning about you. They aren’t ready to buy anything yet. In fact, 96% of first-time visitors to your website aren’t ready or willing to make a purchase.

However, if you nurture your relationship with these users with a sales funnel that follows their journey as a customer, you can end up with an authentic relationship that lands you a sale, and referrals.

Even if the above logic doesn’t have you convinced, a sales funnel saves you time and money.

Because you can automate your sales funnel through an email autoresponder sequence, for example, you don’t have to spend time nurturing your relationship with every individual blog reader. It’s automated, affordable, and gives you more time to focus on the parts of your business that matter to you.

So: are you ready to build a sales funnel for your blog?

Great! Let’s get right down to it.

Stage 1: Reader

As we mentioned before, 96% of first-time visitors aren’t looking to make a purchase. However, you still want to make a positive first impression and establish yourself as an authority in your niche.

When you’re in this first stage, you need to make some assumptions:

• Your audience doesn’t know very much about you or your brand.
• Your audience doesn’t trust you.
• Your audience is experiencing some sort of pain or need.

You want to turn these people into avid readers of your blog.

To start, your audience might just be seeing your content for the first time. It’s safer to assume this is their first time on your website, so you’ll want to wow them with something useful and informative.

In addition, it’s safe to assume they don’t trust you. Think about your own experience on a new business website. You need some coaxing and proof before you can trust 100% of what a blogger says.

Finally, your audience has a pain point. This is what drove them to your website in the first place. They have a question they need answered or a problem they need solved.

This is where you come in. This is how you establish yourself as an authority.

The type of content you create will depend on your business type. For instance, you might provide information about a niche topic or even a source of entertainment.

Let’s look at an example. Jordan Roper of Creative Revolt sells online courses on how to start making money as a freelancer. For those of her audience in the “Reader” stage, she wrote a highly informative blog post on how to start freelance writing with no experience or degree.

In her article, she shares examples as well as her own experience starting without any formal degree or education in writing.

Throughout the post, users learn a lot about who Jordan is, and it’s clear she really knows her stuff when it comes to making money online. This makes first-time visitors interested in learning more.

Stage 2: Subscriber

Now that you have your visitors interested and reading your blog posts, it’s time to convert them into subscribers.

This means that they take an extra step to engage with your content. In our case, we’re going to have them sign up for your email list.

Why use an email list? Email marketing is a powerful tool when done correctly. Email has a 2-times greater ROI than telephone marketing, so it’s time to get in on this while it’s still hot. Even more important, email marketing is easy to automate so you can strike when your leads are ready to buy.

Here’s the thing: people aren’t going to just sign up for your email list because they read a good blog post. Something needs to be in it for them to make them take that extra step.

People are hesitant to give their email out to just anyone. You need to throw in something high value that interests them. This is called a lead magnet. Basically, it’s something that attracts a casual visor to turn them into someone who is actively engaging with your brand. 

A lead magnet can be anything. Ebooks, webinars, and even free courses are all great ideas for lead magnets. If you sell products online, a discount is also a great idea.

Using the Creative Revolt example above, we can see that Jordan encourages users who want to learn more to sign up for her free email course.

Stage 3: Buyer

You’ve done it! You’ve converted a casual reader into a subscriber. But don’t get too excited just yet– this next step is an important one. What you do next will make the difference between someone making a purchase and someone unsubscribing immediately.

Think about how swamped your email can be sometimes. The average email user gets over 147 emails a day, 71 of which are deleted immediately. 

What you say matters. After you deliver your lead magnet, it’s time to build a relationship with your subscriber.

Don’t jump right into your hard sell right off the bat. Add value. You might offer a discount, another freebie, or something that solves your subscriber’s pain point. But you do want to get them to become a buyer, even if they only buy a small product.

Think of this as an opportunity to prime them for future selling. If you shared a free online course as your lead magnet, your initial offering might be a paid course with a discount code. See how it naturally all ties together?

This isn’t necessarily the place you’ll be making the big bucks. In general, your customers still aren’t ready to make a major purchase.

Slow and steady wins the race, remember? It’s in the follow-up stages that your audience really trusts you.

Below, see how Michelle Schroeder-Gardner of Making Sense of Cents uses her blog sales funnel to offer special deals to her engaged users. By offering a lower cost for these special users, she helps introduce them to her products and services and keep them engaged in her business.

Stage 4: Enjoyer

Your blog sales funnel doesn’t end when you’ve made a sale. Your first sale isn’t likely to be your largest, and that means you’ll want to pursue a longer, more genuine relationship with your email subscribers.

Let’s face it; most of your most expensive products and services likely only appeal to existing customers. How else would those customers trust you as a quality investment?

Invesp argues it costs up to 5-times more to sell to new customers compared to retaining an existing one.

This means it’s much gentler sailing from this point onwards! The goal is to increase your overall lifetime value of every customer, thus increasing overall profits.

After your customer has made an initial purchase, it’s time to keep them loyal. How can you keep them coming back and engaging with your products? How can you keep them making additional purchases?

Well, you want to turn them into “enjoyers”.

First, include them in your best content. Share customer stories, testimonials, and add additional value. Give them a reason to consider buying something else, and keep nurturing your relationship.

This is when segmenting comes in handy. When you segment your customers, you separate them by interest. For instance, if a customer purchased a book on DIY home repair, you wouldn’t want to send them an email about marketing your blog.

The more you know about your customers, the easier it is to make them happy.

Alien Valley, an online design resource blog, frequently sends existing customers their latest design bundles. These usually come with a steep discount, so they’re an exciting way to bring customers who might have forgotten about Alien Valley back into the loop and ready to make a purchase.

Stage 5: Referrer

We’ve done it. We’ve finally reached the last stage of the funnel. Now, you’ve not only landed a customer, but you’ve landed a repeat customer. This is what all businesses strive for, so this is an exciting place to be in your sales funnel.

As we said, in the past, many sales funnels ended once a customer made an initial sale. But if you really want to make the most of your blog, you shouldn’t stop there.

We want to create customers who are so passionate about our business that they essentially do our work for us. We’re talking about turning “enjoyers” into “referrers”– people who just can’t wait to share our blog and our products with everyone they know.

People trust other people. It’s as plain and simple as that. Think about this concept in your own life. Are you more likely to purchase something that a salesperson told you about, or that your friend told you about? There’s no competition between the two.

So how do you get people to refer others, both in-person and online? You have a few different ways to go about this:

• Encourage users to engage on social media – Offering a discount or some kind of incentive to share something on social media often works. Over 50% of users are more likely to give a referral if they’re offered an incentive like a discount.
• Affiliate program – Offering an affiliate system or referral system in which a user gains a bit of profit from the sale is also a great idea, though it can be more complicated to manage.
• Share referrals – When users see others speaking openly about a product, they’re interested in speak up too. Don’t be afraid to share your best customer stories.

There’s likely no one-size-fits-all way to go about this. If you’re creating positive experiences and engaging your customers on social media and on your blog, referrals will come naturally.

For example, Pencils of Promise, a nonprofit that helps build schools around the globe, encourages users to share their involvement through a simple tweet embedded into the email. It’s simple, but it works.

Build Your Blog’s Sales Funnel Today

Now that you know the 5 stages of the blog sales funnel and how to successfully implement them, it’s time to take your blog to the next level. If you’re posting consistently, but you still can’t land the sale, you need a sales funnel that works. Just because these funnels are automated doesn’t mean they can’t be personal, engaging, and high-value for your audience.

How do you get started? Besides needing a blog, you’ll also want to choose an email management system (EMS). The best one for bloggers is ConvertKit (affiliate link).

There’s no time left to waste. Your customers are reading your content every day. Now it’s time to make them take that important next step towards their first sale. After that, the sky’s the limit.

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Ashley Lipman is an award-winning writer who discovered her passion in providing creative solutions for building brands online. Since her first high school award in Creative Writing, she continues to deliver awesome content through various niches.

Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG)
Q1 2021 Earnings Call
Jun 22, 2021, 8:30 a.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Plug Power first-quarter 2021 earnings conference. [Operator instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Ms. Teal Hoyos, director of marketing communications.

Thank you. Please go ahead.

Teal Hoyos — Director of Marketing Communications

Thank you. Welcome to the 2021 first-quarter update call. This call will include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements contain projections of our future results of operations or of our financial position or state other forward-looking information.

We intend these forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. We believe that it is important to communicate our future expectations to investors. However, investors are cautioned not to unduly rely on forward-looking statements, and such statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, as such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or performance to differ materially from those discussed as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, risks and uncertainties discussed under Item 1A Risk Factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020, as well as other reports we file from time to time with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the day in which the statements are made, and we do not undertake or intend to update any forward-looking statements after this call or as results of new information.

At this point, I would like to turn the call over to Plug Power’s CEO, Andy Marsh.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Well, thank you, Teal, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending our first-quarter conference call. We issued our investor letter this morning, which covers our performance for the first quarter. I’d like to comment on a few items before we take your questions. First item I’d like to highlight is the importance of the resilient green hydrogen network the company is constructing across the United States.

We’re presently targeting to have 500 tons of green hydrogen available by 2025 and an additional 500 tons globally by 2028. The network in the U.S. will go coast to coast with sites already targeted for Camden, Georgia to serve specifically Florida; a site outside Lancaster, Pennsylvania; a site West of Fort Worth, Texas; and a site in Upstate New York in Genesee County. At the 45-ton plant in Genesee County, New York, the feedstock will be clean electricity generated from Niagara Falls.

This will be the largest green hydrogen plant in the world. What’s important about our plants is there is pent-up demand for green hydrogen solutions among our customers today. Over the last few years, our value proposition has expanded beyond improving our customer operations and now tightly inclined with companies achieving their CO2 reduction goals. There are many applications beyond material handling like stationary power on-road vehicles and other industrial offerings that can only be decarbonized with hydrogen but to truly decarbonize green hydrogen is required.

Our network will not only offer the revenue and margin opportunity, but what I really think about, it’s an accelerator of all our products, both fuel cells and electrolyzers. Customers want green hydrogen, and Plug Power is making that commitment to deliver. One of our distinct advantages in building our network is, unlike the industrial gas companies, we do not have existing fossil fuel-based assets. We don’t have to worry about stranding multibillion dollars of investments.

This is an impediment to some companies as they seek to decarbonize their car in the middle supporting gray or blue hydrogen assets, which are not wanted by companies, governments, or the environmental community. Our network is a hydrogen network for the 21st century and is just starting. And not only will we be delivering green hydrogen, but we will deliver it in vehicles that operate from green hydrogen. Plug Power, by the way, fuel cells in those vehicles.

Another subject I’d like to highlight is that Plug has become a global company overnight. Two obvious examples are our joint ventures with Renault, Idea, and our relationship in the joint venture being established with SK. Another example of our global efforts is our funnel for the electrolyzer business is already in the billions of dollars, with over 80% of the opportunities outside North America. The funnel for vehicles is also similarly distributed, and our activity in material handling is rapidly growing in Europe.

In 2020, the company was almost exclusively an American company in both sales and opportunities. But over the past six months, the company has been transformed into a global enterprise. And to kind of thinking about questions you’re going to ask, and finally, we’re almost at the end of the second quarter, and we can provide some insights on our progress. Investors should expect $115 million to $120 million of gross billings for the quarter.

This is approximately 40% of our target revenue of $475 million for the year. Usually, at this point in the second quarter, we’re about 33% of our annual revenue will have been achieved. We’re at a run rate that is higher from both a revenue and growth rate level than we’ve experienced in the past. We also foresee a very strong third quarter.

We are pleased with this level of progress so far this year. So we’re now ready. Paul and I are now ready to take your questions.

Questions & Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] Our first question is coming from Colin Rusch of Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Colin Rusch — Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. — Analyst

Thanks so much, guys. Andy, it’s always good to hear your voice. Can you talk a little bit about the contract? Andy, it’s always great to hear your voice. Can you talk a little bit about the sales process for the green hydrogen? Obviously, there’s a lot of moving pieces on the demand side from the truck building perspective and availability plus route codification and whatnot.

But can you talk to us about where you’re at with your customers in terms of preparation to really roll out fleets and move toward a zero-emissions structure for the businesses?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Sure. So, Colin, I think the first item is that one of the unique advantages Plug has is that we have demand for our hydrogen products today. So the qualification process for the purity of hydrogen is relatively straightforward, and we don’t see that as an impediment at all. As you know, we’re already in the hydrogen delivery business and logistics business.

And we’ll have, by the beginning of October, 10 tons of our own capacity. So that’s really not an issue. So when you start taking a look at it, I think, during the second half of this year, you’ll see a number of commitments for our green hydrogen plants. And I would expect by the end of the year, about 40% to 50% of the demand by 2025 we’ll already have in the sales funnel, and most of that will be tied to present applications.

Colin Rusch — Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. — Analyst

Perfect. That’s incredibly helpful. And then with the aerospace opportunity here, it’s the first time we’ve seen some real articulation around time frames and opportunities here. But obviously, that’s a very large opportunity that’s incremental to what you’ve got in your guided plans that you’ve stated in the past.

Could you talk a little bit about potential partnerships, strategic positioning on that opportunity as you go forward? And how we should think about the cadence of news flow coming out?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes. So I’m going to give you a long answer, Colin. I’m sorry. I kind of position aerospace in the kind of three buckets.

One, I think, very, very short duration flights, batteries will be an interesting choice for customers. I think for the majority of flights where regional flights and transcontinental flight category falls, and I think hydrogen will be an interesting solution, both with fuel cells and using present internal combustion engines. And I think when you start talking about long range, I think a sustainable aviation fuel will have a place in the market. With Plug, in 2025 with universal hydrogen, we’ll be doing the first deployments of converting regional planes for power prop planes to fuel cell power.

I think that’s a really interesting opportunity. I think we think a lot about it — we’re talking with many of the major players who are thinking about how they go about deploying both the small players and many of the new emerging companies about how they can source green hydrogen. I think that many people would conclude that the pathway for aviation, which represents 3% of CO2 reduction, hydrogen will be the most significant player in that industry. I think it will grow gradually between 2025 and 2035.

And then I think by 2035, it may start having certainly a dominant position for all new planes coming off the line. I’m going to add one last item, Colin. To me, it’s also my technology deployment — the technology development platform. If you think about what a plane needs, lightweight, high-power density, simple storage, all those are applicable to on-road vehicles.

And that also is it’s more to me than just the market. It’s also how we develop technology simultaneously as we develop new markets.

Colin Rusch — Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. — Analyst

Perfect. Thanks a lot. Super helpful. Thanks so much, Andy.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

OK.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from James West of Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, James.

James West — Evercore ISI — Analyst

Hey, Andy. How are you?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

How are you? OK.

James West — Evercore ISI — Analyst

Doing well. Andy, some of your pedicle customers like Amazon, Walmart have announced pretty aggressive decarbonization plans. And I suspect that’s driving a nice pickup in your activity with them. Could you perhaps describe kind of how those plans are playing into your business and their greater adoption or further adoption or further penetration into their various facilities?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Sure. So many of these activities are starting today, as you mentioned, James. And I guess I’d like to start out by just kind of discussing what’s the future distribution center look like, which is not too far from being a reality because we’re doing work on all these items today. One of the real advantages — and by the end of the year, we’ll have over 170 fueling stations and hydrogen storage at customer sites that the hydrogen already is there, which is a huge advantage.

And when you look at the different applications from material handling, from powering robots, leveraging the same platform we have for drones from fueling stations, and we are modifying the outdoor dispensers. We have some of our customer sites for on-road vehicles today. Obviously, those on-road vehicles will be using Plug Power green hydrogen to fuel their vehicles, coupled with the fact that when you go look at things like how do you back up a facility, and we’ll be doing some backup deployments this year for our backup stationary products through backup distribution centers, again, since the hydrogen is there. So you start thinking about all that and then even going further back in the chain, we have the ability to generate that green hydrogen.

So obviously, the discussions with our customers have intensified. We are working through some rather large plans with many of our major customers how to be deploying green hydrogen, not as some long-term goal but as some near-term goal to help them support their decarbonization efforts.

James West — Evercore ISI — Analyst

OK. OK. That’s very helpful. And then, Andy, when you and I were talking late last year, as you kind of alluded to in your opening comments, you were more of a domestic company, and now you’re global.

So I’m curious how you and the rest of the team think about this global rollout and the execution of becoming a — what’s going to, I think, be a very, very large global company. How do you think about it from a — just a personnel standpoint, from a logistics standpoint, from a facility standpoint? I mean, there are all kinds of things to think about, but how are you guys planning for this?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Sure. So that’s a long question. And so, James, I’m going to try to use — I’m going to try to use Europe as an example. In Europe, I think we have two efforts.

We’re working to do some activity with partners, and we’re working to do some activities alone. If you think about it, the two largest economies in the EU, France, and Germany, are really where we’re focusing a good deal on our retention. The Renault JV provides us an opportunity to have a home in France. That’s much broader than just the vehicles we’re putting on the road, but we’ll be building the infrastructure and providing the hydrogen to support those activities in France.

And that JV, we have a number of Plug Power employees who happily or voluntarily to go to France to support that activity and really help build up that enterprise as rapidly as possible. We’re opening a business center outside Dusseldorf, Germany to support the German market, which will primarily be focused on our electrolyzer business because of the huge opportunities there. We’re staffing — we have a pretty — fairly strong sales team in Europe, and we’re staffing service and application engineers to really support that effort to grow that business. And then when you go down to the Iberian Peninsula, we have a nice position, as you know, with ACCIONA.

And we expect to close that JV in the third quarter where we’re targeting 20% of the green hydrogen, which will support both our Renault activities and other activities we have in material handling elsewhere going on in Europe. I think one of the key items is it’s really kind of a mix of how you successfully leverage partners, how you successfully leverage relationships. And we obviously can’t do it alone to grow this rapidly but finding the right partners, right relationships, and deciding which items we will pursue on our own. And so that’s really how we’re thinking about it.

And if you look globally, from a facilities point of view, there certainly will be a gigafactory in France supporting the JV, as well as maybe some other activities, as well as in South Korea with SK.

James West — Evercore ISI — Analyst

OK. Makes sense. Thanks, Andy.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, James.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] Our next question is coming from Craig Irwin of ROTH Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Craig Irwin — ROTH Capital Partners — Analyst

Hi. Good morning, and thanks for taking my questions.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Craig. How are you today?

Craig Irwin — ROTH Capital Partners — Analyst

I’m absolutely fantastic.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Let me ask you, are you in London?

Craig Irwin — ROTH Capital Partners — Analyst

No. I’m not in London. I’m still in the U.S. We’re doing our virtual London this week, but hopefully, we’ll see you in London next year, Andy, as we did two years ago.

So —

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

That’s great.

James West — Evercore ISI — Analyst

Busy day. Looking forward to the meetings with you later today. So thank you.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes.

James West — Evercore ISI — Analyst

So my question, right, is in the last year, it became really obvious to the market, the broader market that customer and government interest and support for the adoption of a hydrogen economy is really taking place. Right? We’ve seen many different layers of the story developed considerably. You’re even talking more in your release and on the call today about the aviation market, which is one that I’m personally a fan of, given how dirty aviation fuels are and the potential. Is there anything left for you to pursue? Is there anything you see as low-hanging fruit? You got trucks.

You got beta centers. You got cell sites. You got a future in aviation. Where can you fill out the portfolio?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Wow. That’s a great question, Craig. I think let’s move to the hydrogen front. And I do believe that there is real opportunities in green hydrogen for decarbonizing — helping to decarbonize the natural gas pipeline.

We’re getting lots of requests for injecting hydrogen into pipelines. I think that there are opportunities in industrial applications like steel and concrete, where the hydrogen market could be not the sexiest market, Craig, but the hydrogen market could be really interesting. Now from an apps point of view, I think that if you think about areas, like we talked about airports, and ports in general, I think there’s large opportunities across the board to decarbonize our airports, which is ground support equipment, which is airplanes, which are the bands running around the airports. And I see most of our activity and expansion really has to do with how to think through fleet vehicles or ecosystems around airports and ports and other areas where all Plug Power products and capabilities can be deployed.

That’s kind of how I look at it. And I kind of use as an example in the back of my mind is that a distribution center, we’re beginning to think about as I explained to before, as kind of a mini system where we can do everything to meet customers’ needs. And for those applications where fuel cells make sense, and there’s many where batteries make sense, we’ll be able to decarbonize. So that’s how I’m thinking about it.

And you know what? There will be people who will think of — there’ll be apps and opportunities that pop up and talking to customers that, quite honestly, I haven’t even considered yet.

Craig Irwin — ROTH Capital Partners — Analyst

Understood. That makes a lot of sense. So my second question is about margins. Right? So most investors that look at companies like Plug Power, companies with aggressive growth potential look at growth first, and they look at the longer-term margin potential later.

So you did a really good job in your shareholder letter laying out some of the issues in the hydrogen market, the force majeure events. Can you maybe describe for us what the longer-term potential of green hydrogen offers to your margins and overall customer profitability, not just the environmental footprint, which is what a lot of people have been considering?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I think that’s a good — when you think about the full-margin picture, Craig, the number that I think should tell investors we’re on the right track is the margins for products in the first quarter, which were 38% with all the challenges of transportation the world has seen. On the hydrogen front, we believe green hydrogen will be a 30%-plus gross margin business. And that the long term, when you look at it it’s really — the cost is really tied to the cost of renewables.

Our folks have done a great job like Sanjay finding low-cost renewables that make it attractive versus natural gas today. You have a better product and you have a better offering. And with the deployment of our networks, and especially the resilient network we’re building, we’re in a much, much better position to support much higher margins for hydrogen. And I would like to add, which probably gets lost, is we’re actually really — when I look at the force majeures, logistically, we actually were able to manage that without impacting customers using our own logistics network and assets to make sure that customers are taken care of.

To me, that was a significant achievement. So I think margins in green hydrogen will be in line with our product margins. And the service business actually performed up to our expectations for the quarter, and we’re beginning to see continued improvements. So that business should become a 30%-plus gross margin business.

And look, we expect to be there across the board by 2024.

Craig Irwin — ROTH Capital Partners — Analyst

Great. My last question, if I may, is about the DOE loan guarantees you’re applying for. So it’s really nice to have a Department of Energy that, once again, is willing to lean in and support business transformation and the transformation of energy. Can you maybe talk to us about the process? Where you are in the process? And if there’s maybe a potential for other capital projects that Plug will pursue over the next few years to be a recipient or at least apply for similar financing.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes. So, Craig, we’re at the beginning of phase two with the program. We got a lot of work. Actually, folks have told me we’re about halfway through phase two.

And I think when we’re looking at this, it’s just not for one project. It’s actually, the application is looking at three or four projects to deploy across North America to support all our networks. So we’re looking to do it at stages, but our thought process is somewhere between $500 million to $1 billion of support to build out these networks with low-cost loans.

Craig Irwin — ROTH Capital Partners — Analyst

Understood. Thanks, again, for taking my questions. Congratulations.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

All right. Thanks, Craig.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Eric Stine of Craig Hallum. Please go ahead.

Eric Stine — Craig-Hallum Capital Group — Analyst

Good morning, Andy.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Eric. How are you today?

Eric Stine — Craig-Hallum Capital Group — Analyst

Doing well. Doing well. Thanks. So I just want to quickly come back on the margins.

And, obviously, with the green hydrogen network, you’re putting plans in place for the long term. But just in the near term, any thought — I know you’ve been asked this in the past, but any thought on potentially owning your own tanks, so you don’t have to necessarily switch hydrogen providers or that you’re able to buy hydrogen more cost-effective rather than from one source?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes. That’s a good question, Eric. We actually do own probably — I’m going — Paul, what do you think, a third of our tanks at the moment?

Paul Middleton — Chief Financial Officer

Probably even two-thirds, Andy. We’ve been buying tanks on our own. And even with this transition, we move toward installing our own tanks. And so we haven’t rented a tank from one of the providers in years.

And so I’d say, in very short order, will be the majority of our locations will own our own tanks.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes. But I would say, Eric, that’s great, but also you need to be in contractual relationships with your partners, which the expectation is that they fill those tanks. I think that what I’ve been thinking more about, Eric, is actually our ability to pick up hydrogen at the sites at their facilities, which can help also drive down the cost of hydrogen. So if I think about our near-term containments, our plant in Tennessee is expanding and will be expanding on October 1.

The supply issue has been relieved with the addition of 35 tons of capacity coming online, which is highlighted in our investor letter. And look, we’re obviously in negotiations to try to reduce our costs. It was with some of the severe conditions. It was a tough, tough quarter making sure customers got their hydrogen, and it caused the price to go up.

That being said, prices are going down again, which is helpful. I think probably more important as we built out our network and I think the fact that we’re geographically spreading the network will have really positive impacts for us to control. I think in the next 12 months, life becomes much easier as more and more of our own capability comes online.

Eric Stine — Craig-Hallum Capital Group — Analyst

Got it. And I would assume that makes it easier to — you’ve got some leverage on the contract side.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

I think that would be fair to say, Eric.

Eric Stine — Craig-Hallum Capital Group — Analyst

OK. And then maybe the last one for me. Just on the SK agreement, I know you’re working toward the joint venture and finalizing that in the second half. But just curious, given the significance of that market, what the pipeline looks like? Any work that you’ve done in advance of closing that? And then I would, I guess, specifically on the utility-scale power side, wondering the type of traction or the outlook you have there going forward.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

One of the real advantages of the SK relationship is we expect that by 2025 to have over 400 megawatts deployed with SK alone at their facility. So we have a built-in customer with the JV partnership, which is really advantageous. So if you think about 400 megawatts, by 2025, you’re deploying in ’24, that’s in the range of $400 million in revenue. We also have, not surprising, a good deal of activity going on in the electrolyzer business, but also with hydrogen fueling stations with SK because of their position.

I know SK has huge, huge ambitions. We’ve had teams over there positioning material handling equipment already, working with some bus manufacturers, and positioning ProGen with SK itself. And as you know, it’s as we’re talking here, I’m actually on the South Korean comp and also going to present at 9:30. This is really a high topic in South Korea, and we’re deeply engaged in with SK to really make this a big market.

Eric Stine — Craig-Hallum Capital Group — Analyst

OK. Thanks a lot.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Eric.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Jeff Osborne of Cowen. Please go ahead.

Jeff Osborne — Cowen and Company — Analyst

Hey. Good morning, guys. A couple questions on —

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Jeff.

Jeff Osborne — Cowen and Company — Analyst

Good morning. A couple questions here. On the electrolyzer side, great to hear you were quoting billions of business, I think you said and 80% outside of the U.S. I was wondering if you could give us an update on when you thought some of those RFPs would come to a closure.

When you might be awarded any business? Is that an event that you think will happen this year or more next year?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

I can tell you, Jeff, I believe it’ll happen this year. And that’s mainly because there are — they’re big opportunities, but there’s probably four opportunities that I think we’re in a leadership position. And that I would expect that very, very possible that they could close either at the end of the third quarter or early fourth quarter. And I would think we have an opportunity to close 500 megawatts this year with most of the deployments next year.

So I’m really pleased. I think that many — yes. I think the combination of the fact that PEM technology can work from variable energy sources. And the fact that costs will — are coming down, will coming down, especially since we can leverage our gigafactory, I think that’s — they’re all really promising signs for us.

Jeff Osborne — Cowen and Company — Analyst

That’s great to hear. And this would be leveraging that group in Dusseldorf that you referenced earlier, I assume, or no?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

No. No. Actually, the gigafactory, as you know is in Rochester. But we will be — for the European market, we do have a partner, and I think you’ll hear more about who will be supporting building the systems for within Europe.

Look, we also have opportunities in places like Australia, New Zealand, India across the world to support different activities we’re engaged in.

Jeff Osborne — Cowen and Company — Analyst

Got it. That’s great to hear. Just a couple of other housekeeping questions. One, I saw the units sold for revenue, but can you give us the total units? Which would include the leased units for GenDrive?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Paul, I think you have it. Paul, I think it’s 13 80, isn’t it, Paul? I’ll let you take this one, Paul.

Paul Middleton — Chief Financial Officer

Yes. For the first quarter, it was — 13 08 was total that got deployed in the quarter.

Jeff Osborne — Cowen and Company — Analyst

Got it. And then what’s the CAPEX plan for this year and next? Just given the bevy of announcements you’ve had, I just want to make sure we’ve got the right expenditure profile for ’21 and ’22.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

That’s you again, Paul.

Paul Middleton — Chief Financial Officer

Yes. Well, I would say some of these long-lead items are a little tough to plan exactly when the money will be spent, but I would — I mean, just — I think 750 million this year and 750 million next year is probably a pretty good proxy, Jeff.

Jeff Osborne — Cowen and Company — Analyst

Got it. And last one, the stationary power, will we have our first deployment of that and live in the third quarter? I think that was your prior target for a data center backup.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

I’ll say this, Jeff, Mike, we better, so yes.

Jeff Osborne — Cowen and Company — Analyst

OK. Good to hear. That’s all I have.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Great. Thanks, Jeff.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Paul Coster of J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Paul Coster — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Hi. Good morning, Andy.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Paul. I think I’ll be talking to you later today. Right?

Paul Coster — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

I believe so. You’re a busy man. So, Andy, starting off with the near term. Obviously, the 2Q guidance is pretty encouraging.

And 3Q, I think you said is very strong, whatever that means. It sounds like it’s incrementally better over 2Q. So perhaps you can elaborate. But what is driving the near-term demand? Is it the pedicle business? Or is it other stuff? Or perhaps you can just give us some color there.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes. So I think you know the answer to that is that primarily the pedestal business. And I think in the third and fourth quarter, you’ll see the electrolyzer business pick up significantly. But if I look at it, there are, today, five customers who really are driving the material handling business.

The biggest point one is actually Amazon. There’s lots of new deployments with Amazon. Amazon is not only buying fuel cells but electrolyzers from this. So that’s a huge — that’s a big part of our funnel, Walmart, Home Depot, GM.

And we actually have a fifth customer, which I’ll tell you more about to assume when they let me announce that we’ll do over $25 million in the second half of the year. So we’re feeling the businesses is really healthy. I mean, the factory is packed. And I think that’s really the — I think the nice item is we’re beginning to spread that revenue across a larger and larger customer set.

Paul Coster — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Gotcha. You mentioned electrolyzers. So it sounds like some of the material handling sites will have electrolysis co-located? Is that a correct statement? And more broadly, as you look at that, I think you said billions in the funnel for electrolyzers. Can you give us some color on geography? On customer type? Is it centralized? Decentralized? How big are the probable deployments in terms of, I don’t know, kilograms per day or whatever? So some kind of color would be helpful.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Sure. So, Paul, if I step back, and this is a point that I probably should have made earlier in the call. We’re becoming better at bundling the offerings to really — the total system solution now incorporates our electrolyzer technology. And if I think about how we go in and sell today, it’s we can provide you the electrolyzer.

We can provide you fueling stations. We can provide you the material handling equipment and the vehicles, especially in Europe. And that ability to bundle is actually probably what attracted both Renault and SK to work so closely with Plug Power. Now when I look at the deals, if I was going to spread out geography, many of the sites are, call it, 250 megawatts and above range.

A lot of the sites are — and they are — the big projects are really centralized sites. But often centralized sites, which may be spread around three or four different locations, that add up to a gigawatt. And if you think about 250 megawatts of electricity, you’re talking plants, which are in the 500 tons. Good-sized tonnage hundreds of tons of hydrogen.

So I think very attractive, and I think that’s really the mix of sites. And from a geography point of view, you see in Europe. We’re seeing it in Australia. We’re seeing activity in India.

We’re obviously in South Korea. So it’s really kind of a mixture across the board.

Paul Coster — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

One last question, please. You said that 35 tons of hydrogen is coming online to supplement that, which was previously available, and you’ve seen disruptions. Why wouldn’t — is this gray or blue hydrogen? And is it subject to the same kind of variability and risks as it’s — as the hydrogen you were previously consuming domestically?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Good question, Paul. It is great hydrogen. And obviously, we want to transfer eventually to green.

It’s not Plug Power, but it is coming off. It’s getting cleaned up versus the pipelines, which are tied to large-scale storage with caverns. So I think the variability of that hydrogen is much, much lower.

Paul Coster — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Gotcha. Thanks so much.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

OK, Paul.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Jed Dorsheimer of Canaccord Genuity.

Jed Dorsheimer — Canaccord Genuity — Analyst

Hey. How are you, Andy?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Jed.

Jed Dorsheimer — Canaccord Genuity — Analyst

Good morning. So just two questions. I guess, first, it sounds like the contribution of revenues by end market is changing. Today, kind of first time, I’m hearing you talk a bit more on aerospace or it sounds like that’s — so a bit of shift.

So I was just wondering, does that change any of the projections? I think on May 10, you talked about sort of the 4 75, 7 50 of 1.7 billion. Are those numbers still solid? Is it just what’s kind of the moving parts underneath to support the top line? And then I have a follow-up.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes. So, yes, Jed. This — They are our numbers today. 4 75 is rock solid, and we’re continuously looking at — we’re, in the 750, feel great about.

I think we’re spending a — I think when we have the — we’ll have our Plug Power Symposium in September, and I hope you can attend. And I will give you not only — we’ll give you a much broader outlook not only what we expect for 2024 and 2023, but also kind of what the geographical and product mix will be.

Jed Dorsheimer — Canaccord Genuity — Analyst

Great. I hope you have the symposium — you should have it at the electrolyzer, the gigafactory, that would be great.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I think at the moment, we’re scheduling NASDAQ, but I think we’re debating that. So you’re voting on put it at the gigafactory?

Jed Dorsheimer — Canaccord Genuity — Analyst

Yes. NASDAQ is not nearly as exciting as being at a gigafactory.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

I agree, Jed. That’s my vote, too.

Jed Dorsheimer — Canaccord Genuity — Analyst

So just as a — I do have a follow-up, though. And as I hear, it’s interesting in terms of the European, particularly Germany and France, which really have paradoxical views on energy production. So I’m wondering how those conversations, particularly France being pronuclear and Germany being quite against Germany’s electricity prices being the highest of any first-world nation, I’m curious, how does hydrogen play into that discussion? And how are the two countries thinking about Plug and hydrogen production? Is there a difference? And do you see a difference in scalability?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I think when you — first, I think that in both countries, as well as the EU, I think there’s a general acknowledgment that to decarbonize hydrogen is required and fuel cells are required. It’s why, Jed, that with Renault — it’s the CEO, Luca, Renault tells me that every time you talk to a minister in France, the first question is what are you doing with fuel cells and hydrogen? I think from a feedstock point of view, I think you’re right. I think France is thinking a lot about how to leverage their carbon-free nuclear assets to be the electrical stock for feedstock for hydrogen.

I think in Germany, I think folks are thinking more about their renewable curtailment, as well as offshore wind as the feedstock for electrolyzers. So I think both of them are very committed to fuel cells and hydrogen. I think there is a different view on what the feedstock should be based on their own internal infrastructure.

Jed Dorsheimer — Canaccord Genuity — Analyst

Does that have a different economic? I would think the impact — if I have a baseload versus curtailment, while in one, I’m solving a problem of a subsidized technology being the intermittency for the renewables. In the other, though, it would be lower-cost electricity prices. Does that change the dynamic in terms of the value proposition for green hydrogen, or do you see it as net, the same?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I probably see it net. I mean, I think that underlying everything is where the cost of renewables are going. And that I think like the U.S., Europe has — and one has to be thoughtful about numbers that are put out there.

I think both Europe and the U.S. strongly feel that hydrogen generated for renewables can be lower cost in hydrogen generated by natural gas. And certainly, it’s a journey. But it’s a journey that I think both nations, France and Germany, feel that it’s the best — it will be the best source of energy for many, many applications.

I mean, I think commercial vehicles, large-scale stationary, how you support these networks like ports. I think if you look and you hear these numbers, 20% of world energy from hydrogen, they really think hydrogen is really the solution to meet those needs.

Jed Dorsheimer — Canaccord Genuity — Analyst

That’s it for me. Thanks, Andy.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Jed.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] Our next question is coming from Amit Dayal of H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead.

Amit Dayal — H.C. Wainwright & Co. — Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, Andy. Good morning, Paul.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Amit. How are you today?

Amit Dayal — H.C. Wainwright & Co. — Analyst

I’m good, Andy. How are you doing?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Very good.

Amit Dayal — H.C. Wainwright & Co. — Analyst

OK. So, Andy, you mentioned 500 megawatts of potentially closing for electrolyzers this year and deployments next year?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes.

Amit Dayal — H.C. Wainwright & Co. — Analyst

Is any of this in the current guidance for this year or next year, or would this be incremental?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

I would say some of it is in the present guidance for next year.

Amit Dayal — H.C. Wainwright & Co. — Analyst

For next year?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes.

Amit Dayal — H.C. Wainwright & Co. — Analyst

OK.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

It is in the current guidance for next year.

Amit Dayal — H.C. Wainwright & Co. — Analyst

OK. OK. And you indicated another large customer. Is this a pedestal level customer?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes.

Amit Dayal — H.C. Wainwright & Co. — Analyst

And maybe just in that context, are there any additional level — pedestal-level customers in the pipeline?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

So, yes, this is a pedestal customer. It’s in the auto industry. And it’s a global auto manufacturer. And the answer to your question is, yes, especially in Europe, we have a number of pedestal customers, which are pending.

Amit Dayal — H.C. Wainwright & Co. — Analyst

And with recent increases in commodity costs, supply chain challenges, etc., has that impacted your CAPEX executions?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes. It’s a good question. Paul, do you want to take a crack at that? I mean, I look at our product margins, they’ve seen relatively very healthy. And, Paul, maybe you want to comment on, I think, some of the construction work we’re doing for the gigafactory.

I think it’s such a modest proportion of what we’re doing that it hasn’t been that impactful, but maybe you have some thoughts on that, Paul?

Paul Middleton — Chief Financial Officer

Yes. If you look at our history and even our projections outside of green hydrogen investments, it’s a fairly nominal percentage of sales. And so — but yet, the gig effect will be pretty impactful from a margin standpoint from many different facets. So I don’t expect that it has had a major impact on our product margins and I don’t anticipate it will as we go forward with it.

In fact, depreciation, obviously, is a GAAP effect. But the margin enhancement will more than offset the depreciation impact because it’s such a small percentage of CAPEX to sales, respectively.

Amit Dayal — H.C. Wainwright & Co. — Analyst

Understood. And maybe just a high-level question, I don’t know if you have an answer to this. But why is the solution from you guys with the electrolyzers and all the other components versus just buying sort of one set of solutions? Like how much does that impact the customers’ IRR on these types of investments they make?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Well, I think that I think that it really, I think, simplifies the process for them, Amit, to be able to go to one place and have someone put the whole solution together for them. I think that’s probably the most attractive part of this. I mean, I think in the applications, they see healthy IRRs, and then you kind of compounded with the fact that they’re doing an activity that really supports their long-term mission to decarbonize, be it 2035, 2040. I think being able to go to one person say, “Take care of all this,” and having somebody who’s an expert in all these technologies, I think, is a real differential advantage.

Amit Dayal — H.C. Wainwright & Co. — Analyst

Understood. That’s all I have. Thank you, Andy. Thank you, Paul.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

All right. Thanks, Amit.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Chris Souther of B. Riley. Please go ahead.

Chris Souther — B. Riley Financial — Analyst

Hey. Good morning, guys.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Chris.

Chris Souther — B. Riley Financial — Analyst

Awesome. So the first piece I wanted to touch on was the fueling margins. You talked about improvements there in the second half and into ’22 as some of these industrial gas partners are expanding capacity and then the longer-term targets of about 30%. So maybe you could just discuss when and where we see those breakeven levels as far as kind of positive gross margin? Is that really with some — the first three facilities are coming online, we’ll start to see that kind of switch over?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

I think that — Chris, I think you’ll see gradual improvements, and you’ll see — I mean, we’ll have some improvements with our own additional capacity coming online in October. I think you’ll start seeing that transition called mid-2022. OK.

Chris Souther — B. Riley Financial — Analyst

OK. That’s helpful. And then you mentioned Amazon is now buying electives, which is great to hear in that 80% of the electrolyzer opportunities are coming from abroad. Can you maybe walk through the customer decision you’re seeing between buying their own electrolyzers versus signing up for long-term hydrogen offtake agreements with the facilities you guys are building out? It sounded like Home Depot, Southern Company were more kind of in the offtake.

But I’m curious, is it really site-specific, geography-specific, customer-specific? How everybody is kind of looking at that kind of build it themselves versus buying it from you guys over time.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I think that’s a — if you look at it, as you mentioned, I think it’s a real mix. I think that there are companies that are building hydrogen networks in other parts of the world in which they’re looking — their main business is selling hydrogen. I think that when you’re looking at the smaller deployments — I have some activity going on in New Zealand, for example, which is smaller.

There, people are more inclined to buy small-scale electrolyzers to support. I think most large enterprises that are called the Amazon, the Walmarts of the world, I think their primary focus will be they’ll want to buy green hydrogen from us. I think there’ll be opportunities where their facilities already have a low-cost renewable energy speed, which makes sense to use electrolyzers. But I think those who are in those who are there are companies that we deal with who are primarily users of hydrogen, and I think they will want to buy hydrogen from us.

And there are companies, which are primarily what I’ll call, want to be generators of — suppliers of hydrogen, and I think they’ll be more of our electrolyzer base. And then I think along the way, you’ll have a mixture of the two. But I think from a primary space point of view, that’s how I think it will line up.

Chris Souther — B. Riley Financial — Analyst

OK. That’s very helpful. Thanks, guys.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Chris.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Tristan Richardson, who will be our final question for today, and he is with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

Tristan Richardson — Truist Securities — Analyst

Hey. Good morning, gentlemen. Thanks for squeezing me in.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Tristan.

Tristan Richardson — Truist Securities — Analyst

Just a quick one, Andy, on stationary power. I appreciate the update on the order book or opportunities you’re seeing this year, but curious about how that trends throughout the back half of the year and into next year. Can we see a stationary power customer become a pedestal customer over time? Or conversely, could you see a pedestal customer become a stationary power customer over time?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Yes and yes. And boy, Tristan, you asked a question, and you’re going to get an hour into the call and you’re going to get a new answer. We have over a hundred customers in the funnel for the stationary products. And they range from large-scale data center customers, which could become pedestal customers, to folks who are present customers today, which are looking to back up their distribution centers with hydrogen since it’s already available.

So there is — I had every Monday, like most businesses, I do a review, and of each week of the quarter, I do — each week of the month, I do a different market, and it was our stationary product. And the funnel for that is astonishing, and many, many of those customers could become pedestal customers.

Tristan Richardson — Truist Securities — Analyst

Helpful, Andy. And then just a quick follow-up. I appreciate all the commentary on electrolyzer opportunity you’re seeing. And just specifically in your letter, you noted deployments this year in New York, Georgia, and Europe.

But just thinking, is there a way to think about how much of that is third party versus deployments for your own internal need?

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

So those — so I guess you’re talking about, Tristan, the green hydrogen plants we’re building. Ultimately — and you use the word our own internal needs, the more that’s captured by our own internal needs for on-road vehicles and other applications that become significant, I would think that by 2025, about 75% of that will be consumed by our own internal needs, if not more. And when I say that, it’s hydrogen that we’re selling to pedestal customers for all the applications that we’re developing.

Tristan Richardson — Truist Securities — Analyst

That’s great. Appreciate it. Thank you, guys, very much.

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

All right. Well, thank you, everyone, for joining our call today. I really appreciate everyone’s attention, and I really look forward to talking to everyone for the second quarter, which should be in late July, early August. So thank you, everybody.

Bye now.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 62 minutes

Call participants:

Teal Hoyos — Director of Marketing Communications

Andy Marsh — Chief Executive Officer

Colin Rusch — Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. — Analyst

James West — Evercore ISI — Analyst

Craig Irwin — ROTH Capital Partners — Analyst

Eric Stine — Craig-Hallum Capital Group — Analyst

Paul Middleton — Chief Financial Officer

Jeff Osborne — Cowen and Company — Analyst

Paul Coster — J.P. Morgan — Analyst

Jed Dorsheimer — Canaccord Genuity — Analyst

Amit Dayal — H.C. Wainwright & Co. — Analyst

Chris Souther — B. Riley Financial — Analyst

Tristan Richardson — Truist Securities — Analyst

More PLUG analysis

All earnings call transcripts

Voted #1 Landing Page Builder. Build Marketing Funnels to Grow Your Business. Build Converting Funnels with Simple Drag-and-Drop Software Without Relying on Tech Teams Mehr als 1,5 Million eBooks, mit mehr als 140.000 deutschen Titeln Der Sales Funnel: Wirklich alles, was du darüber wissen musst. Know, like and trust.. So beschreibt John Jantsch das Marketing. Es geht also immer darum, dass deine potenziellen Kunden dich zuerst kennen- und mögenlernen müssen. Erst dann bauen sie Vertrauen auf

Sales Funnels:Get Special Deal – Start Your Free Tria

Trichter), auch Sales-Funnel oder Marketing-Funnel genannt bezeichnet im Online-Marketing den Prozess, in dem jemand mit Interesse an einem Produkt zum Kunden wird. Der User durchläuft dabei verschiedene Touchpoints, bis er am Ende des Funnels konvertiert. Diese Conversion kann zum Beispiel der Kauf eines Produkts, der Download eines Dokuments. Wie bereits erwähnt, kann man einen Sales Funnel auch als Verkaufstrichter bezeichnen. Das Bild eines Trichters zeigt deutlich, was mit potentiellen Kunden in einem solchen Funnel passiert: Sie werden durch verschiedene Schritte im Verkaufsprozess von Interessenten zu Kunden Der Begriff Sales-Funnel (auch Verkaufstrichter genannt) bezeichnet ein Werkzeug aus dem B2B-Bereich und dem Vertrieb. Er dient dazu, durch verschiedene Schritte, potenzielle Kunden bishin zum erfolgreichen Abschluss eines Geschäfts zu selektieren

Sales Funnel Marketing – bei Amazon

• Definition: Was ist ein Sales Funnel? Ein Sales Funnel oder auch Purchase Funnel oder Conversion Funnel kommt aus dem klassischen Offline-Marketing und beschreibt den gewöhnlichen Vertriebsprozess
• Was ist ein Marketing und Sales Funnel? Mit einem Sales Funnel lassen sich die einzelnen Schritte entlang der Customer Journey vom Erstkontakt bis zum Verkauf des Produkts oder Dienstleistung quantitativ abbilden. Dieser sog. Verkaufstrichter ist zentraler Bestandteil des Verkaufsprozesses und der Customer Journey. Wie sieht ein Sales Funnel aus
• Ein Sales Funnel bildet den Marketing- und Vertriebs-Prozess in Form eines Trichters ab. Dabei wird die Reise potenzieller Kunden vom ersten Kontakt bis zum Kaufabschluss anhand konkreter Zahlen dargestellt. Er ist von großer Bedeutung, da kein Marketing- und Vertriebsprozess ohne tagesaktuelle Zahlen aus dem Sales Funnel gesteuert werden kann
• Funnel ist heute der Fachbegriff im digitalen Marketing und Sales, um eine gezielte intelligente Kombination von Seiten, E-Mails und Anzeigen zu beschreiben, die nötig ist, um ein gewünschtes Ziel einer Kampagne per automatisiertem Funnel zu erreichen, wie z.B
• Sales Funnel vs. Marketing Funnel – Ein Trichter, viele Namen. Der Marketing Funnel wird nicht nur im Marketing als Hilfswerkzeug verwendet. Auch Sales und Service nutzen das Framework, um Conversion-Prozesse (Newsletter-Anmeldung, Kaufabschluss, eBook-Download, etc.) zu visualisieren
• Welche Arten von Funnels gibt es? In der Regel hört man von einem. Sales Funnel; Marketing Funnel; Conversion Funnel; Lead Funnel; Die meisten meinen mit diesen Bezeichnungen immer das Gleiche. Da das Marketing vor dem Sale stattfindet, kann man diese beiden Funnels durchaus trennen. Das Ziel ist in jedem Fall eine Conversion

Ein Sales Funnel dient dazu, die einem Unternehmen zur Verfügung stehenden Ressourcen möglichst effizient einzusetzen und bestehende Marketing- und Vertriebsprozesse effektiv zu gestalten. Marketingverantwortliche können mit einen auf ihr Business und den jeweiligen Prozess zugeschnittenen Funnel den Erfolg ihrer Anstrengungen messbar machen Bei einem Sales Funnel wird unter der Verwendung von Online Marketing Strategien, aus einer größeren Menge von Website-, Blog-, oder Landing Page Besuchern (Traffic) mit Hilfe automatisierter Prozesse über mehrere Touchpoints hinweg (Trichter), eine kleinere Menge herausfiltert und in Interessenten und Kunden umgewandelt (Conversion) Daraus lassen sich Optimierungsmaßnahmen für die Website ableiten, um die Anzahl der wegfallenden Interessenten zu minimieren und die Usability (Benutzerfreundlichkeit) der Website zu steigern. Oft wird ein Funnel auch Sales Funnel, Conversion Funnel, Marketing Funnel oder E-Mail Funnel genannt

Der Sales Funnel: Alles, was du darüber wissen musst

A sales funnel represents the ideal path companies hope buyers take to become customers. Most companies use the funnel concept as a method to track prospects as they move through sales stages and to align marketing and sales targets, activities, and processes. (Some may also refer to this as a purchase funnel or conversion funnel. Well, it’s just that – a funnel. The top of your marketing funnel, much like those found in a kitchen, is wide open, casting a broad net to bring in a large volume of would-be customers. From there, the funnel narrows The sales funnel can take prospects, leads, conversions from slightly interested, to qualified and add a revenue/LTV value to their unique ID. The sales funnel becomes incredibly valuable to an organization because it helps forecast revenue figures, ROAS, and helps digital marketers isolate which channels, keywords, creatives, targeting audiences, or any number of inputs are most profitable

(Sales-)Funnel erklärt für Einsteiger: Definition

Sales Funnel Marketing: Schritt-für-Schritt-Anleitung zur automatisierten Kundengewinnung und Umsatzsteigerung mit Sales Funnel-Marketing | Schildknecht, Pascal | ISBN: 9781982994907 | Kostenloser Versand für alle Bücher mit Versand und Verkauf duch Amazon In einem guten Sales Funnel kommen alle Marketing-Maßnahmen an der richtigen Stelle der individuellen Customer Journey. Zielgruppe, Marketing-Kanal, Botschaft und Produkt sind aufeinander abgestimmt. Die gewonnen Daten fließen direkt zurück in eine weitere Optimierung des Funnel. So begleiten Sie Ihre Kunden nicht nur automatisiert über verschiedene Online-Medien, sondern nutzen die. I can wait to see how I can use the tips and examples you’ve highlighted to boost my marketing and sales funnel. I was wondering though, which do you prefer between Clickfunnels and Leadpages, especially for creating landing pages. Many recommend Clickfunnels, but it’s so pricey. Reply. Ray says: July 22, 2020 at 7:25 am . I love every part of this piece, and the breakdown of sales funnel.

Sales Funnel Marketing: Schritt-für-Schritt-Anleitung zur automatisierten Kundengewinnung und Umsatzsteigerung mit Sales Funnel-Marketing eBook: Schildknecht, Pascal: Amazon.de: Kindle-Sho A sales funnel is a marketing concept that maps out the journey a customer goes through when making any kind of purchase. The model uses a funnel as an analogy because a large number of potential customers may begin at the top-end of the sales process, but only a fraction of these people actually end up making a purchase Sales Funnel Baustein: E-Mail Marketing Sequenzen. Wir haben eben gesagt, dass der Traffic das Blut ist, das durch die Adern des Sales Funnels läuft. Wenn wir bei diesem Vergleich bleiben, dann ist dein E-Mail Marketing das Herz deines Funnels. Denn es pumpt das Blut durch die Adern. Mit Hilfe deiner E-Mails kannst du deine Besucher gezielt durch den Funnel leiten. Automatisiertes E-Mail. Sales Funnel sind in der Marketing-Welt auf jeden Fall eine sehr aufregende und lukrative Angelegenheit, wenn man es einmal richtig verstanden hat. Hierbei hilft Dein Artikel ungemein, vor allem weil Du einen Sales Funnel auf 3 glasklare Phasen herunter gebrochen hast, die jeder nachvollziehen kann. Beste Grüße, Sven. Antworten. Chris am 11.08.2016 um 09:55 Uhr. Toller Artikel. Ich komme. And that’s where Sales Funnel Marketing began. I give you your time back and keep you top of mind with current clients, and create strategies on how to build new clients as well through campaigns organically and paid ads as well. If you’ve tried ads in the past or the Social Media scene is just too hard to keep up with, I’d love to chat

Sales funnel vs marketing funnel is a complicated topic that can be argued all day long. However, it’s good to perceive that sales and marketing are alike in many ways. Though they aren’t the exact same thing, they should tell the same story. Marketing funnel advertises a product or service to give leads a motivation to buy. Whereas, the sales funnel deals with the leads generated. Your sales funnel will be made up of a series of steps that consist of various marketing assets, for example, social media campaigns, landing pages and email. Sales funnel software can provide you with a holistic view of your sales and marketing efforts (and results) at a glance. (Though not all sales funnel software comes with a funnel view – more on that below. A sales funnel is a marketing strategy designed to turn cold prospects into long-term customers by funneling them through five stages. The funnel metaphor means you’ll begin with a large audience of prospective buyers that will eventually pare down to a smaller group of highly-targeted, high-value customers

Sales Funnel: Optimierst du noch oder verkaufst du schon

1. Every business has a sales funnel.. It might not be a very effective sales funnel — especially if you don’t know what it is or how to optimize it — but you do have one.. In this article, we’re going to discuss what a sales funnel is, the difference between a marketing funnel and a sales funnel (these terms are often used interchangeably, but we think there’s an important difference.
2. Der Sales Funnel anhand des AIDA-Modells Bereits 1898 stellte Lewis das sogenannte AIDA-Modell vor und noch heute findet es im Marketing Verwendung. AIDA ist dabei ein Akronym für die vier Stufen, die die Kunden durchlaufen sollen, bis sie am Ende zur Kaufentscheidung gelangen
3. Der Sales Funnel oder Verkaufstrichter bezeichnet den Prozess, den Interessenten durchlaufen, wenn sie zu einem Kunden werden. Der Trichter besteht aus mehreren Phasen, und in jeder Phase kommt der potentielle Käufer dem Kauf einen Schritt näher. Ein klar definierter Sales Funnel legt fest, welche Maßnahmen Ihr Unternehmen ergreifen muss, um Interessenten zur nächsten Phase zu bewegen
4. Der Sales Funnel hilft, potenzielle Kunden zu selektieren. Wir geben einen Überblick, wie Sie das Modell aus dem B2B-Marketing für Ihr Unternehmen nutzen können
5. TOFU-MOFU-BOFU: Top of the funnel (generating leads), Middle of the funnel (generating prospects), Bottom of the funnel (generating sales) Below, we’ll also talk about how the marketing funnel differs slightly between B2B and B2C companies, as well as a variation known as the nonlinear marketing funnel

Sales-Funnel: Definition & Erklärung – unternehmer

1. Ja, Sie haben richtig gelesen. Der Sales–Funnel ist ein Trichter mit Löchern, also eigentlich ein Sieb. Und das ist gut so, denn seine Funktion soll sein, die Spreu vom Weizen zu trennen. Wie das funktioniert und was das alles mit E-Mail-Marketing zu tun hat, klären wir jetzt genauer. Wie funktioniert ein Sales–Funnel
2. Eine Sales Funnel Definition zu geben, ist nicht allzu schwierig, denn die Begrifflichkeit Sales Funnel wird mittlerweile im Vertrieb und im Business-Umfeld häufig verwendet, um ein bestimmtes Vorgehen im Vertriebsumfeld zu beschreiben. Falls Sie nicht wissen, was es mit den Begriffen und Konstrukten Sales Funnel oder Marketing Funnel auf sich hat, dann werden Sie es mit diesem Beitrag.
3. So ein Sales Funnel kann etliche Stufen bis zum letztlichen Kauf haben, und auch sehr unterschiedlich gestaltet sein. Im folgenden gehe ich mal exemplarisch einen dreistufigen Sales Funnel durch von einer fiktiven Agentur für Printdesign. Übrigens: In der Konzeption und Umsetzung Deines eigenen Sales Funnels können wir Dich gern unterstützen
4. Wie Du einen Sales Funnel erstellen kannst in Rekordzeit, extrem einfach und für nahezu alle erdenklichen Marketingtrichter. Beispiel MLM-Funnel
5. Die Akronyme ToFu, MoFu und BoFu stehen für folgende im Bereich Marketing und Vertrieb etablierte Begrifflichkeiten der Stationen im Sales Funnel. Diese lauten vollständig . Top of the Funnel ; Middle of the Funnel sowie; Bottom of the Funnel; An den einzelnen Stationen des Sales Funnel oder zu Deutsch Verkaufstrichter, der insgesamt einer umgekehrten Pyramide vorstellbar ist, gilt es die.
6. Heutzutage verfügen die meisten Unternehmen über eine Art Marketing-Funnel, auch wenn sich die einzelnen Phasen branchen- und unternehmensabhängig ändern. Im B2B-Marketing finden Sie beispielsweise eine Evaluationsphase – der Kauf eines Millionen Euro teuren Software-Paketes erfordert mehr Überlegungen, als der eines kleinen Postens auf Amazon. So entwickeln Sie Ihren ersten Sales.
7. Modern Marketing and Sales Funnel. These days, marketing needs to work much harder to set sales up for success, especially digital marketing. Digital marketing done right should yield you a higher return. Instead of a salesperson (and their expensive salary) having to do all the work, content and advertising can do it for you 24/7 at a fraction.

A sales funnel is a prolongation of a marketing funnel but it impacts on whether you make profit or not. Since you have already built awareness, trust and make the visitors believe you outperform the competition you need to slightly push the visitors to purchase from you – for example, by joining your blog’s WordPress landing pages with order confirmation pages in your ecommerce store The purchase funnel, or purchasing funnel, is a consumer-focused marketing model that illustrates the theoretical customer journey toward the purchase of a good or service.. In 1898, E. St. Elmo Lewis developed a model that mapped a theoretical customer journey from the moment a brand or product attracted consumer attention to the point of action or purchase

Aber du solltest deinen Sales Funnel so betrachten, dass er über dein gesamtes Unternehmen hinweg geht. Gerne wird der E-Mail-Funnel auch Autoresponder, Drip Marketing oder schlicht und einfach E-Mail-Serie genannt. Alle meinen so ziemlich das selbe. Alle meinen eine Sequenz von E-Mails, die automatisch verschickt werden, zu den Bedingungen, die du bestimmst. Das Ziel ist. Verkaufstrichter / Sales Funnel Verkaufsfilter . Der Begriff Verkaufstrichter wird in zweierlei Hinsicht verwendet. 1. Der Verkaufstrichter / Sales Funnel zur Kontrolle Ihres Verkaufsprozesses von der Zielgruppendefinition über die Akquise bis zum Verkaufsabschluss Geben Sie oben möglichst viel rein, damit am Ende ausreichend viel herauskommt. Mit dem Bild des Verkaufstrichters, benutzen. Which sales funnel should you model your marketing after? Technically, all of them. Because all the sales funnel examples (including the Flywheel and the hourglass) you’ll find on the web have more similarities than differences. All of them start with some form of top-level awareness that feeds into engagement, consideration, intent to buy and, eventually the decision to buy. Conceptually.

A marketing funnel (sometimes called a sales funnel or a conversion funnel) assumes that buying decisions aren’t made on a whim; they’re the result of ongoing exposure to particular brands over time. Buyers first hear about the brand, then they get to know a little more about the brand, they start actively looking for more information about the brand, and then they make the decision to. Your sales funnel illustrates the path prospects take. Understanding your funnel can helps you find the holes in the funnel — the places where prospects drop out and never convert. If you don’t understand your sales funnel, you can’t optimize it. We’ll go into the specifics of how the funnel works below, but for now, understand that you. . A large number of technical tools are available out there. You need to make sure that you are locating the best tools out of them, which can complement your sales funnel marketing strategy in the long run. For example, you can invest money to get an excellent customer relationship management tool. Then you need to get some marketing.

Le terme funnel marketing, ou tunnel de conversion, désigne le parcours effectué par un visiteur de votre site jusqu’à sa décision d’achat. Il va capter puis guider les visiteurs s’intéressant à vos offres et ainsi générer des leads!Le funnel marketing est très employé lorsqu’on parle de marketing digital et d’inbound marketing. Il est encore très mal compris alors on vous a. Ein automatisierter Sales Funnel integriert mehrere Marketing-Plattformen, automatisiert die gezielte Kommunikation von Marketingbotschaften und generiert erfolgreich neue Leads oder neue Produkt-Verkäufe. Leistungen im Überblick Fundierte Beratung und individuelle Konzeption Gezieltes Umsetzen des gewünschten Funnels – individuell an Ihr Ziel angepasst (z.B. Lead-Generierung, Steigerung. Sales Funnel Lead Nurturing & Email Marketing Statistics #20. 65% of businesses say generating traffic and leads is their biggest marketing challenge. (Source: HubSpot) #21. 68% of B2B companies will use landing pages to nurture new sales leads for future conversion. (Source: MarketingSherpa) #22. Targeting and testing correctly can boost conversions by 300% or more. (Source: Steelhouse) #23.

Sales Funnel Guide 2021: Alles, was Sie wissen müssen

• This is the beginner’s guide to sales funnel marketing. If you’re just getting started in your sales funnel journey, and you want to: Generate more leads; Convert leads into customers; Nurture customers into repeat buyers; Create brand advocates and promoters; Then you’ll love this new sales funnel marketing guide
• A marketing sales funnel is the step-by-step process by which leads become customers. It’s the journey a customer takes from initial awareness of a business to action. The process is called a funnel because, when represented visually, the diagram is wide at the top and narrows with each succeeding step: The top of the funnel represents your range of potential leads or prospects. The.
• Der Sales Funnel ist nach wie vor ein großartiges Marketinginstrument, um warme Leads, also Interessenten, zu zahlenden Kunden zu verwandeln. Warum nach wie vor? Im heutigen Marketing, speziell im Inbound Marketing, wird immer wieder diskutiert, ob das System eines Sales Funnels noch zeitgemäß ist

Was ist ein Marketing und Sales Funnel und wie erstelle

Der Sales Funnel funktioniert als Marketing-Werkzeug, weil er die verschiedenen Stadien (Positionen im Trichter) beschreibt, durch die sich zukünftige Kund:innen bewegen und in denen sie auf unterschiedliche Weise angesprochen werden können. Alternativen zum Sales Funnel. Der klassische Sales Funnel, gelegentlich auch als Verkaufstrichter übersetzt, wurde schon einige Male als. Sales Funnels Dienstleistungen oder Produkte verkaufen, am besten mit einer eigenen Funnel-Seite! Einfach neue Kunden gewinnen mit SGorges.inf

Was ist ein Sales Funnel und wie können Sie ihn nutzen

Best Sales Funnel Software – Final Verdict. We’ve discussed some of the best sales funnel software available in the market and even if you decide to go for an all-in-one option, you’ll still need to use tools from at least a couple of categories mentioned in this list Sales Funnels Marketing. Search. Search for: Recent Posts. link to Intersection Between SEO and Your Marketing Funnel. Intersection Between SEO and Your Marketing Funnel. When SEO strategists overlook the journey of a buyer, they can miss out on opportunities to drive conversions for their clients. By understanding the intersection of SEO and your sales funnel, it’s… View Post. link to How.

The best and hottest sales funnel software in the market now is ClickFunnels (free trial here) WHILE the newest, cheapest and free funnel tool today is GrooveFunnels (access free account here). With an effective sales funnel, you can significantly increase the lifetime value of your customers and scale your business beyond measures. You know, approximately 96% of visitors that come to your. Your sales emails containing the right CTA can make the transaction happen. To maintain engagement in this journey, we need an email marketing funnel. 8 Kinds of Emails in a Sales Funnel. Nurture; Problem & Solution; The Pitch; Content ; Social Proof; Objection Killer; Pitch with Offer; Ask for feedback; Sounds like a lot? Well, it all makes. Marketing and sales funnel model & framework simplify and quantifies each step of the customer journey. It is the process of turning a lead into a customer, from a marketing (and sales. Today’s marketing specialists have a great grasp on sales funnels, the way that customers move from awareness to purchase (and beyond). These funnels cover all the different touch points, marketing channels, and key metrics that go into a buying decision and help you have a better sense for what messaging and content makes the most sense at different points of the customer’s journey

Funnel Marketing Sales Erklärung, Bedeutung, Beispiele 201

Wie Marketing den Sales Funnel befeuert. Du fragst dich jetzt eventuell, warum eine Luzerner Online Marketing und Inbound Marketing Agentur, mit Fokus auf Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing und Inbound Marketing dir etwas zum Verkaufstrichter erzählt. Gerne schliesse ich diesen Kreis für dich: Das Internet erfasst sämtliche Geschäftsprozesse und somit sind auch die Verkaufs- und. Yet other sales funnel platform, which is recently discovered a few weeks ago.They aim to help you grow your audience, sell your products, build courses, launch your affiliate program, and increase revenue.The sales funnel tool was first launched into the French market, and the founder decided to extend the tool and open it in the English market

An email marketing sales funnel works as a rail track. It helps you get your potential customers smoothly from point A to point B, without worrying about them getting lost. There are steps for you to take to influence your potential consumers and direct them toward your conversion goal. To help you increase your conversion rates and revenue by guiding your leads the right path, I’ll guide. A Sales Funnel is a marketing tool used to introduce potential customers to your company, product, service or offer and guides them step by step through a programmed sales process. At the same time, you collect and verify their contact information, automatically schedule follow up emails and text messages that direct them back to your offer. Here at Funnel Responder, we custom build your sales. The Beginner’s Guide to Sales Funnel Marketing » Templates » 21 Free High-Converting Sales Funnel Templates. Save Tweet. Share. Pin. Share. Use these 21 free high-converting Sales Funnel Templates as a launch-pad to build a sales funnel that generates leads and sales for your company on auto-pilot 24/7. Each Sales Funnel Template is instantly importable into ClickFunnels as a fully.

Sales funnels help you take a cold lead to a purchasing customer in the fastest time possible. That’s why finding the best sales funnel builder software is critical to getting more leads and sales for your business long-term.. I’ve looked into the different sales funnel software and am going to share what the best funnel builders are in this post, along with some frequently asked questions How To Fix Your Marketing And Sales Funnels. So You Get & Grow Customers Faster. Actionable Strategies For Entrepreneurs, Business Owners, And Self-Employed. Get Exclusive Tips. That We Only Share With Email Subscribers First Name. Email. Sign Up. Shocking Marketing Stats. 1 % Local SEO. of smartphone users have directly contacted a business using the search results. 1 % Organic Search. of. Want a Successful Automated Sales Funnel? Follow These 3 Marketing Automation Tips . You can’t just think like a salesperson or a marketer when working on your funnel. You need to think analytically about how your campaigns are serving goals, and remain realistic about what these types of campaigns can achieve. To make the most of your automated funnels, there are a few things you’ll need. In traditional sales funnels, marketing doesn’t know what is going on with the SQLs they handed over to the sales team, so if there is a roadblock or lack of information, then marketing can’t help. But when there is only one funnel, sales and marketing are in constant communication, collaborating to move leads through the funnel. Marketing can provide the content sales needs to help the.

Der Marketing Funnel: Wie du Leads zu Kunden machst YasMa

• They also leverage sales funnels when optimizing their marketing strategy. But when a person visits your store, they will usually browse a variety of products or offers. Therefore, one strong CTA or a funnel designed for a particular conversion won’t be enough. For a store, the most important is to look trustworthy and to look well. Once you drive traffic, you want visitors to stay for as.
• Ein Sales Funnel kann enorm dabei helfen, Marketing und Vertriebsaktionen zu messen und zu bewerten. Awareness – Gewinne die Aufmerksamkeit deiner Kunden für deine Lösung! Interest – Halte das Interesse deiner Kunden, damit sie sich mit deiner Lösung auseinandersetzen
• What are the different types of marketing funnels? Sales funnels Webinar funnels Email funnels Video marketing funnels Lead magnet funnels Home page funnels . Why do marketing funnels matter? Marketing funnels provide access to data, called a marketing funnel report, which lets you can see where you are losing customers. What is an example of a marketing funnel? Visited site > Signed up for a.
• Der Marketing Funnel (auch Sales Funnel) beschreibt den Kaufprozess und die verschiedenen Touch Points der potentiellen Kunden. Der Marketing Funnel funktioniert dabei als vereinfachte Darstellung des Weges. Er ist in verschiedene Phasen (Stages) unterteilt und diese zeigen, wie weit der potentielle Käufer im Kaufprozess fortgeschritten ist. Sie haben wahrscheinlich bereits die ein oder.
• Die lange Reise durch den Sales-Funnel im B2B-Marketing Wir stehen Ihnen zur Seite – in alles Phasen des Sales Funnels. Ähnlich wie die Customer Journey beschreibt auch der Sales Funnel die Reise Ihres Kunden vom Beginn seiner Aufmerksamkeit bis zur erfolgreichen Vertragsunterzeichnung. Doch bezieht sich der Sales Funnel mehr auf Ihre Sicht als Verkäufer und auf die Maßnahmen, die Sie in.

Was ein Marketing Funnel ist und warum du einen benötigs

Mit einem Sales Funnel kannst du deinen kompletten Prozess der Kundenakquise vollautomatisieren! Die Wahrheit ist: jedes Unternehmen hat einen Verkaufsprozess, bewusst oder unbewusst. Bei jedem Kontakt mit einem potentiellen Kunden befindest du dich an irgendeiner Stelle in deinem Sales Funnel. Deshalb mach ihn dir am Besten von Anfang an bewusst und baue ihn mit uns zusammen auf! In diesem. 1. Sales Funnels Defined. So what exactly is a sales funnel? A sales funnel is a step-by-step process that allows you to bring your potential customer one step closer to your offer and a buying decision through a series of marketing actions like automated emails, videos, articles and landing pages that will do the selling for you

Ein Sales Funnel kann in der Regel als Online Marketing Tool angesehen werden, ist jedoch auch für Offline Einzelhandelsunternehmen äußerst effektiv. Sobald Du über einen effektiven Trichter verfügst, richtest Du Dein Geschäft auf Deine Kunden aus, was zu einer höheren Conversion führt. Ich hoffe, dieser Artikel war hilfreich für Dich Dankeschön für Deinen tollen Artikel. Sales Funnel sind sicherlich ein spannendes (und gewinnbringendes) Thema, wenn man es richtig anstellt. Hierzu kann ich Deinen Artikel nur weiterempfehlen, vor allem weil Du den Sales Funnel auf 9 glasklare Stufen herunter brichst und so dem Ganzen eine klare Struktur verleihst. Beste Grüße, Sve Mit einem Sales Funnel (deutsch: Verkaufs- oder Vertriebstrichter) werden die verschiedenen Ebenen eines Verkaufsprozesses qualitativ und quantitativ abgebildet. Das bedeutet der Sales Funnel ermöglicht es, den Weg vom ersten Kundenkontakt bis hin zu einem erfolgreichen Geschäftsabschluss durch ausgewählte Kennzahlen zu verfolgen Jeder Sales Funnel ist also ein Marketing-/Conversion Funnel. Aber nicht jeder Marketing-/Conversion Funnel ist auch zwingend ein Sales Funnel. Nicht immer sind die Grenzen so klar gezogen und häufig werden die Begriffe auch einfach synonym verwendet. Es geht aber immer um einen Prozess, der eine Gruppe von Menschen dazu bringen soll etwas zu tun, was du von ihnen möchtest. Schauen wir uns. If you work in marketing or run your own business, you probably can’t scroll through Facebook & Co for longer than 5 minutes without seeing an offer for a new groundbreaking sales funnel strategy. However, the whole concept of sales funnels is nothing new, but it evolved overtime on the back of marketing frameworks

Tipps für Ihren Immobilien Sales Funnel Fokussieren Sie sich auf einige wenige Stadtteile oder spezielle Nischenangebote, die nur Sie Ihren Kunden anbieten… Machen Sie Ihrem Kunden (Lead) in jeder Phase des Kaufprozesses unschlagbare Angebote und animieren Sie Ihre Besucher… Verfolgen Sie immer. Ein sogenannter Marketing- oder Sales-Funnel bildet den Marketing- und Vertriebs-Prozess in Form eines Trichters ab. Er beschreibt die Kontaktpunkte potentieller Kunden entlang verschiedener Kanäle oder Maßnahmen.. Erfahren Sie mehr über Sales-Funnel Sales-Funnel für Digital-Marketing Der persönliche Aspekt im Verkauf bleibt dank moderner Technologie, trotz Automatisierung, nicht auf der Strecke. Mit dem Sales-Funnel können Sie Ihre Zielgruppe perfekt targetieren, verschiedene Interessensgruppen selektieren und so jedem Menschen in Ihrem Funnel genau das geben, was er/sie braucht To understand sales funnel marketing strategy, imagine a sales funnel as the real-life funnel in which the materials get filtered and give you the desired results. In marketing, the material is the people that go through different stages of the funnel, and you finally get a few of them as your customers. An effective funnel should be built in a way that can turn more visitors into buyers. So. A sales funnel is widest at the top where awareness is low and narrow at the bottom where awareness is high. As prospects progress through the funnel, unqualified leads who are not a good fit for your offer drop out and qualified leads move to the next stage. Stages of the Sales Funnel Includ

What Is A Sales Funnel | Marketing Basics. You know, when I was a brand-new speaker and coach, I came across the question, What is a sales funnel? Let me tell you, I was just as confused as you are. I didn’t even know how to spell it right! I didn’t want to look at funnels charts because I didn’t know what they were. But as I built my multi-million-dollar empire, I learned so much. Der Marketing Funnel (auch Sales Funnel oder Conversion Funnel) hilft Unternehmen dabei, die Zielgruppe bei Digital Marketing Massnahmen bis zur Conversion zu verfeinern. Mithilfe des Funnels werden Kampagnen und Mechanos ideal aufeinander aufgebaut und sauber strukturiert, damit am Ende Leads generiert werden. In diesem Blog-Artikel geben wir dir eine Definition für den Funnel, führen dich. Similar to a marketing funnel, a typical sales funnel is widest at the top and narrowest at the bottom. This represents how your potential customers are gradually filtered into qualified leads and converted customers (with those unsuitable falling out of the funnel) as they progress through their buying journey. There are three main sales funnel stages: Top of the sales funnel. This is the.

Sales-Funnel. Network-Marketing-Funnel; Affiliate-Marketing-Funnel; Preise/Bestellen; Partnerprogramm; Support; Der Affiliate-Marketing-Funnel. Für Affiliate-Einsteiger ohne Vorkenntnisse. Willst Du von 0 an Dein Affiliate-Business aufbauen oder endlich den Durchbruch schaffen? Mit diesem fix und fertigen Affiliate-Funnel wirst Du jeden Tag AUTOMATISCH Online-Provisionen verdienen! Das Probl Sales Funnel requires more tools to make it completed to generate more sales. Therefore, we are here to make a heartful review for all these kinds of marketing tools/ Sale Funnel tools to make your life easier A sales funnel enables alignment between marketing and sales. Remember, your prospect can get in touch with you in any moment of their customer journey, whether it’s early research or late decision stage. This is why it’s crucial to align your marketing and sales efforts so that they receive the information they need even when you don’t have the ability to deliver it directly as a sales. While our other sales funnels use a variety of marketing techniques that will significantly boost conversions, evidence has shown that they are primarily useful for purchases up to around $400-$500. Above this level there is psychological barrier which requires a different approach. In order for a potential customer to commit a significant amount of money, they will require much more. Ein Sales Funnel ist der Marketing & Verkaufsablauf, der Interessenten, die noch nie von dir gehört haben mit Berührungspunkten (wie z. B. Artikel, E-Mails, Videos, etc.) in Kunden verwandelt. Wenn der Sales Funnel online und automatisiert ist kannst du ihn dir wie einen virtuellen Vertriebler vorstellen, der 365 Tage im Jahr rund um die Uhr für dich im Einsatz ist. Er wird oft als Trichter.

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As the summer gets into full swing and Q3 approaches, the familiar lead generation slump hits. We’ve all been there: people start taking vacations, stop answering their phones, and your sales team starts getting antsy for more SQLs. Oh, and there’s also the whole cookieless internet thing, where first-party data collection on websites is more important than ever.

It’s prime time to set up some fresh, new lead magnets!

Read on so you can:

• Learn what a lead magnet is.
• Get inspired by 25 lead magnet ideas and examples.
• Understand what you’ll need in order to create lead magnets for your business.

With these tips and examples, you’ll be well on your way to attracting more people to your business that you can convert into customers.

What is a lead magnet?

First, let’s define exactly what a lead magnet is.

Lead magnets are an incentivized marketing tool for increasing form fills. Typically, a business offers something free, but valuable, that target prospects will be willing to obtain in exchange for their information so that you can continue building the relationship. Plus, that information is all first-party data, which is becoming crucial in a cookieless world.

Lead magnets are often associated with the top of the funnel, but they can actually be used at every stage. After all, new prospects can slide into your funnel at any point. Or if they are entering in at the top, you’ll need a way to keep them engaged and moving along through. So consider lead magnets to be offers that both attract leads to your funnel and keep them there.

Some of the core categories of lead magnets include:

• Educational materials
• Proprietary data
• Prize-based incentives
• Time-sensitive information
• Free consultations and trials

As you can see, lead magnets can come in all sorts of flavors, and as marketers, it’s our job to pick the right type to attract, engage, and convert our prospects. So let’s look at some examples and ideas.

Quick note on these lead magnet ideas

I’ve categorized the ideas by stage of funnel, but I also know that every business has a different funnel and customer journey, so adapt these ideas accordingly.

Also, many of the content-based lead magnets are versatile. For example, a downloadable checklist could be used at the top of the funnel (wedding planning checklist) and in the middle (questions to ask before choosing a wedding planner).

The image below is top-of-funnel checklist, from a process management software company: “Effective Onboarding in 31 Steps.” A mid-funnel checklist for this same company might be something like “10 Features to Look for in an SOP Automation Software Provider.”

Top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas

Lead magnets are the most fun at the top of the funnel. This gives you the most creative leeway to come up with fun ideas to entice your target audience while showing off a fun side of your brand.

These lead magnets can be topically broad compared to your product or service—but related in some sense. Remember, this is the awareness stage of your funnel. Your prospects may not even know you exist!

You’ll definitely want to put these leads through a nurture flow so that the ones that reach sales reps have intent to buy.

For top-of-funnel lead magnets, you don’t need a form requiring details. Just first name, last name, and email will do. Make sure that each lead magnet is properly tagged with a lead source so you can track the ROI down the road.

1. Giveaways

First up, giveaways. There is plenty of finesse that goes into planning and executing a giveaway, but we won’t go into all that here. What you need to know is that giveaways are great lead magnets!

Get your prospects in the door with a variety of giveaway options, from free NBA tickets to a discounted annual subscription to your product. Keep in mind that the quality of your leads will vary depending on how relevant your offering is to your product or service.

While Instagram giveaways are a great way to expand your reach and brand awareness, you’re not going to get any leads unless you have entrants DM you with their email addresses. Instead, create a landing page on your website for the giveaway, and then share that link in your social media posts.

2. Face-to-face field marketing

Field marketers interact directly with potential customers, such as at trade shows, networking events, and conferences. They employ a mix of sales and marketing expertise to educate, inform, and persuade prospects to engage with your brand. Have your field marketers collect emails to keep in touch! You’re not likely to get a high volume of leads in this manner, but the quality of the leads will be excellent.

3. Influencer collaborations

Seems like everyone and their mom is trying to be an influencer these days. Who can blame them, with all the TikTok and YouTube fame being tossed around? This is the perfect time to test out lead generation through micro-influencers.

Find an influencer in your niche, sponsor a couple posts, and collect your leads. Remember to tag them properly, especially if you choose to pay influencers on a commission or per-lead basis.

4. Blog post downloads

Visitors coming to your blog are most likely in the awareness and information-gathering stage, so focus on free and easy offers here. Free and easy for you too! Simply offer to send the post (or an abridged version) to their inbox so they can read later. All they need to do is fill out their email address. How convenient!

5. Free tools

If you didn’t already notice, we offer a variety of free tools for business owners and marketers, and it’s a win-win: They get free professional assistance that will help them get more sales, and we acquire leads who might actually increase our sales as well. High-five.

You can try out the Google Ads Grader, Facebook Ads Grader, and Google My Business Grader any time! (See what we did there?)

More top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas:

6. How-to and examples content (i.e., a free guide on how to write a networking email, or networking email examples)

7. Podcasting

8. Idea generators

9. Cheatsheets

A lead magnet about lead magnets. Whoah.

Mid-funnel lead magnet ideas

Okay, this is when lead magnets get a little more serious. Prospects entering into the middle of your funnel are aware of and interested in your business. Mid-funnel lead magnets should be at least slightly related to your product or brand, but if you’re at the mid-to-top level, you can still dance around it a little bit more.

For mid-funnel lead magnets, you may want to ask for more information than just email address. This may include name, company name, email, and whatever qualifiers will help you. For example, I like to ask my prospects to select with compliance framework they are interested in. This informs the content I send their way down the line and helps my sales team pitch more accurately.

And make sure you continue nurturing these leads! Your sales team might be eager to get on the phone with these more qualified leads, but tag them and place them into a nurture stream where they belong. Don’t scare them off with heavy-handed sales tactics.

10. Webinars

Webinars are all the rage these days. I’m a big fan of virtual lunch-and-learns, particularly featuring how-tos or trending topics. Even better, any webinar can be recorded and reused, or emailed out as part of a nurture campaign.

If you’re hosting a webinar, make sure to ask your participants what questions they’d like answered during the session–you can glean more engagement and information from leads that way.

11. Checklists

If your product helps streamline a solution or gives your team intimate knowledge into a niche process, checklists give you a high-level, low-effort way to share that know-how. Hot tip: downloadable checklists typically perform well in Google ad campaigns.

12. Free templates

I’m a sucker for resume templates. I can’t help it; every time I am editing a resume, I need to find a new design. And as a result, a crazy amount of companies hawking resume templates have my email address.

Offer a template for something that you would consider yourself an expert on. For example, how to design a project management flow. Or a notion.io content marketing calendar (I’m in the market for one!).

Templates are more mid-funnel compared to examples, since the prospect is not just looking for ideas anymore, but ready to put pen to paper and get down to it.

More mid-funnel lead magnet ideas

13. Original data reports

14. Product comparisons

15. Email courses

Bottom-of-funnel lead magnet ideas

These lead magnet ideas are for the cream-of-the-crop prospects. They might already know your brand and trust your content. This is the opportunity to show that your product is right for them.

16. Case studies

Case studies can be a snoozefest. It’s easy to go wrong with these, but if you add a little extra ‘oomph’ to the content, you could have a great download on your hands.

While most companies will share a case study with a title like, “X company helped Y company increase revenue by 50%! See how we did it.” And there is nothing wrong with that. But if you take the time to insert actionable data and insights into your case study, it’ll make it worth an email submission.

17. Product picker

This might be my favorite type of lead magnet. I know, you probably thought I was going to say whitepapers were my bread-and-butter but WHEW. I love quizzes.

Why are they so great? It’s the best time to show off your authority on a niche topic in an engaging way. This is great for leads who are ready to buy, but don’t know what exactly they want. My company, Laika, has a quiz to see which compliance framework is right for your business.

18. Partner referral discounts

You’ll likely need to get any type of discount cleared with your department heads and sales teams. But discounts are powerful hooks; everyone loves to save money.

I recommend reaching out to your partners to let them know that anyone who submits their information with a specific code or through a certain page will receive a percent off the purchase of your product.

You can also do this with customers who have had a good experience! Referrals are like good reviews, they hold a lot of weight with prospects doing investigation into a new company.

19. Event tickets

Everyone loves free stuff. I had some coworkers who created email addresses specifically to enter contests to win concert tickets. While I hope your prospects won’t do the same, you could run a promotion where those who sign up for a free demo or consultation will be entered into a random drawing for free tickets to a conference.

You decide the event, and let the leads pour in.

20. Early access

Releasing a new feature? Testing new copy or UX? Advertise it to prospects. You can learn about their behaviors while shaping your offering to their exact tastes.

Plenty of mobile games and apps already utilize beta versions and early access. If you offer an app in the Google Play Store or the Apple Store, you can enter it onto a list for users to access in beta. Even Disneyland has extended early hours for visitors to get early access to the rides!

21. Free trial

Trial your product or service for free, for a limited time only! There are plenty of examples of free trials out there, but the trick is to make yours seem exclusive, urgent, and the best way to get a taste of your amazing company.

22. Newsletter referrals

By now, most people have heard of The Skimm. They grew their subscribers in a big way through referrals! You could track how many referrals you had from a unique link and get rewarded along the way.

More bottom-funnel lead magnet ideas

23. Discounts or sales promotions

24. Free shipping

25. Free quote or consultation

How to create a lead magnet for your business

Assuming you want to start generating more leads, I’m going to finish off with tips on creating lead magnets for your prospects.

For the actual lead magnet, you’ll need:

Make sure your landing page copy and design matches the original offer, as well as your CTA. For example, if you’re luring prospects in with a promise of 15% off for subscribing to your email list, your CTA after filling out the form should be “get my 15% off coupon.”

I also recommend a website pop-up tool. There are plenty of platforms today that enable you to create tasteful popups and use specific criteria to trigger them—such as page their on, topic of blog post they’re reading, whether or not they’re a returning visitor, where they came in from, and more.

And finally, since you’re going to be generating more leads now, you’ll first want to invest in marketing automation software to track, segment, and nurture them. In this remote world, I recommend Marketo, Hubspot, or ActOn.

Lead magnet ideas [recap]

Here are the 25 lead magnet ideas and examples covered in this post:

1. Giveaways
2. Face-to-face field marketing
3. Influencer collaborations
4. Blog post downloads
5. Free tools
6. How-to and examples content
7. Podcasting
8. Idea generators
9. Cheatsheets
10. Webinars
11. Checklists
12. Templates
13. Original data reports
14. Product comparisons
15. Email courses
16. Case studies
17. Product pickers
18. Partner referral discounts
19. Event tickets
20. Early access
21. Free trials
22. Newsletter referrals
23. Discounts and promo codes
24. Free shipping
25. Free quote or consultation

Have any tried and true lead magnet ideas that we missed? Share your landing pages and forms; we want to sign up!

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There are numerous software solutions that are extremely powerful for building and optimizing high-converting sales funnels.

The only issue… is the price tag.

Paid sales funnel software can be extremely expensive: some solutions can cost thousands of dollars yearly. Suffice to say that many marketers simply can’t justify investing that much for a marketing tool.

After all, some marketers only want to whip up quick sales funnels occasionally and don’t want to pay hefty monthly fees to do so. On the other hand, some beginner digital marketers might want to gain some hands-on experience with free tools before graduating to paid sales funnel solutions. Others might only need a simple solution that doesn’t have all the fancy bells and whistles of premium sales funnel software.

Fortunately, there are a few solutions that allow you to build out highly effective multi-step funnels completely for free.

Here you can discover the 5 best free software for building sales funnels.

But first, let’s break down what a sales funnel actually is shall we?

What defines a sales funnel builder?

A sales funnel builder is software that helps convert prospects into paying customers. These tools allow you to build out a sequence of web pages that guide prospects through the buying process for your product(s) or service.

A basic sales funnel you can create with these tools goes as follows:

While the sales funnel example above can be perfectly effective, sales funnel builders are capable of creating much more complex sales funnels as well. In addition to selling products and accepting payments, sales funnel builders also allow you to capture email addresses, upsell additional products, and more.

While using sales funnel builders, you can refer to numerous sales funnel examples with different variations for inspiration. 

In order to allow you to build out a wide variety of different types of sales funnels, any reputable sales funnel builder offers the following core features:

Some sales funnel builders also have autoresponders for emailing prospects automatically after you capture them. At the very minimum, sales funnel builders at least have integrations with popular email marketing tools.

Shortcomings of building sales funnels for free

The features listed previously (landing pages, opt-in forms, order pages, conditional logic, analytics/testing) define sales funnel builders. However, unlike paid tools like Clickfunnels, unfortunately, there are no free tools or free versions of tools that include all of these features. For instance, most free software that you can use to build sales funnels don’t have order form features.

This isn’t to say that it isn’t possible to build sales funnels for free. You certainly can, but depending on the type of sales funnel you want to make, you may need to use two or more free tools to create your sales funnel. For instance, if you are using a free funnel builder tool that doesn’t have an order form feature, you would need to use a free order form tool such as Jotform in conjunction with your funnel free funnel builder.

Best free sales funnel software

With the following solutions, you can quickly and easily design sales funnel for your business without paying a dime.

1. Wix

Wix is one of the most powerful website builders. Designed for small businesses and entrepreneurs, this website builder is intuitive and very easy to get started with. The platform has a few paid plans but given how feature-rich the free version is, many users have no need to upgrade.

Although Wix doesn’t market itself as a funnel builder, the platform has all the features needed to build out basic sales funnels.

Free features for building funnels

Web pages: It’s staggering how many website templates Wix offers. You can choose from hundreds of professionally designed themes.

Opt-in forms: You can choose from a variety of opt-in form styles for capturing email addresses. Additionally, you can add as many other fields as you want such as name or phone number.

Autoresponder: With Wix’s free plan you can set up two free email automations for delivering lead magnets to your subscribers.  

How to build a sales funnel with Wix

With Wix, the process of building out a sales funnel is relatively straightforward. Basically, you would build out a mini website and design each page of your website as a piece of your sales funnel. Once you have created each page of your sales funnel, you would interlink the CTA buttons of each page to direct visitors through your sales funnel.

Most Wix templates have prebuilt site menu options for about pages, features, etc. It’s important to delete those items so that your site’s visitors don’t end up exploring other pages of your website instead of clicking-through your funnel’s pages as they should. Generally, the fewer distractions the better.

For an in-depth tutorial on how to create a Wix sales funnel see this post here!

Wix’s page editor 

Pros and cons of using Wix for sales funnels

2. ConvertFlow

ConvertFlow is a platform designed for converting website visitors into leads. Widely used by agencies, Saas, and ecommerce companies alike, ConvertFlow gives businesses all the tools needed for boosting website conversions. Fortunately, ConvertFlow integrates with numerous popular email marketing platforms so that users can seamlessly follow up with your collected leads.   

Additionally, unlike Wix, ConvertFlow markets its self as a sales funnel builder among other things.

Free features for building sales funnels

Landing pages: Choose from dozens of lead generation landing pages intended for a variety of purposes. For instance, there are landing pages designed for webinar registration, gated content opt-in, and ebook lead magnet promotion. All of which can be perfect for sales funnels.

Opt-in forms: Add and customize opt-in forms wherever you see fit on your landing pages to capture leads.

Advanced analytics: Not only can you see how many leads you captured in your sales funnel but you can also gain insights into how many pages each visitor clicked through in your funnel as well.

How to build a sales funnel with ConvertFlow

To build a sales funnel with ConvertFlow, start off by creating a lead capture landing page. This landing page will be the first page of your funnel.

Once you select a landing page you will get taken to an editor where you can customize your page however you see fit with the drag-and-drop builder. One of the coolest things about ConvertFlow’s editor is that you can add subsequent landing pages to your funnel without leaving the editor. In other words, you can build out all of your sales funnels landing pages in the same editor view. Naturally, this makes it incredibly easy to visualize every stage of your funnel at once.

Additionally, the CTA buttons of each landing page will automatically direct visitors to the next landing page in your lineup.

ConvertFlow’s landing page editor 

Pros and cons of using ConvertFlow for sales funnels

3. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is undoubtedly one of the most well-known email marketing platforms. For over two decades, Mailchimp has been an affordable email marketing solution for small businesses.

However, while Mailchimp is most well known for its email marketing capabilities, the company offers other features from paid ads management to marketing CRM. Not only are many of Mailchimp’s features available with its free plan, but these features are also perfect for building sales funnels.  

Free features for building sales funnels

Landing pages: Mailchimp is an email marketing tool with landing page pages. The platform only comes with a handful of landing page templates, however, the drag-and-drop landing page builder makes the templates very customizable.

Opt-in forms: Many landing page templates have built-in opt-in forms that you can customize as you see fit.

Order forms: Unlike the other solutions listed in this post, Mailchimp allows you to add checkout forms to landing pages. These forms can integrate with Stripe and Square payment processors which are also completely free to use.

Autoresponder: Mailchimp allows you to set up a free autoresponder to deliver lead magnets. With some creativity, you can even use Mailchimp to create lead magnets as well. 

Additionally, you can use Mailchimp to create email campaigns to nurture the leads you collect from your sales funnel.

How to build out a sales funnel with Mailchimp

To build out a sales funnel with Mailchimp, you will need to build out a series of landing pages. Create a landing page for every step of your sales funnel. Once they are complete, you will need to have each landing page’s CTA direct to the next landing page in your sequence.

Presumably, you will want to have an order page at the end of your sales funnel. To build out the order page, create a landing page and add the payment block to the landing page. This payment block prompts visitors to enter their credit card information in an order form to complete their purchase. 

Mailchimp’s landing page editor 

For an in-depth tutorial on how to build Mailchimp sales funnels see this post here!

Pros and cons of using Mailchimp for sales funnels

4. involve.me

involve.me isn’t nearly as well known as the other software featured in this post. However, this hidden gem is a treasure trove of amazing free features.

involv.me helps marketers create interactive content to engage their target audience. A few ways marketers use involv.me include creating lead generation quizzes, surveys, and calculators. Given how feature-rich and flexible this platform is, it’s perfect for building out multi-step sales funnels for free.

Free features for building sales funnels

Funnel templates: One thing that makes involve.me truly unique is the large selection of prebuilt funnels to choose from. These funnel templates are comprised of multiple sequential webpages and many are perfect for generating leads and sales.

Conditional logic: Conditional logic means that visitors can be shown different pages in your funnel depending on how they interact with previous pages. This can be great for building out quiz funnels where you would want to tailor quiz results based on responses in the quiz.

Advanced analytics: See valuable statistics such as the number of visitors that completed your funnel vs the number of partial completions.

How to build out a sales funnel with involve.me

You can build out a sales funnel with involve.me by choosing one of the templates or by building out a sales funnel from scratch using a blank canvas.

Once you have settled on a template, you will be taken to the editor where you can customize each page of the funnel in the same view. Simply click the page or “step” that you want to edit.

involve.me’s landing page editor 

Additionally, you can reorder the steps of your funnel simply by clicking and dragging steps into whatever order you see fit. Similar to ConvertFlow, involv.me makes it incredibly easy to organize every step of your funnel given that you can edit every page under one editor.

Pros and cons of using involve.me for sales funnels

 

5. MailerLite

 

Compared to email marketing solutions like Mailchimp that have been around since the early 2000s, MailerLite is the new kid on the block. Regardless, MailerLite is arguably the most modern and clean email marketing tools you will find. The platform’s simple user interface makes it incredibly easy to create powerful email campaigns.

MailerLite is well known for its generous free features. Not only can you send 12,000 emails per month without paying a dime, but you can also take advantage of the platform’s free features to build sales funnels as well. 

Free features for building sales funnels

Landing pages: MailerLite has a few dozen landing page templates; many of which are great for lead generation. The free plan allows you to create 5 landing pages, which is more than enough for a simple sales funnel.

Opt-in forms: While many of the landing page templates have built-in opt-in forms, you can add and customize opt-in forms as you see fit.

Autoresponder: MailerLite allows you to set up a free autoresponder to deliver lead magnets. Additionally, unlike Mailchimp, you can create entire automated drip campaigns with MailerLite for free as well.  

How to build out a sales funnel with MailerLite

Like with Mailchimp, to build a sales funnel with MailerLite you would need to build out a landing page for every step of your sales funnel. Once your landing pages are complete you would direct each landing page’s CTA to the next landing page in your sequence.

One aspect that makes MailerLite’s landing page builder unique is its content blocks. Like most landing page builders, MailerLite has generic content blocks such as text and images, however, MailerLite also has special content blocks such as countdown timers, tables, surveys, quizzes, maps, and more. These options truly make the platform versatile.

MailerLite’s landing page editor 

Pros and cons of using MailerLite for sales funnels

Final words

No matter what free solution you choose to create your sales funnel, keep in mind that you might not get amazing results the first time you send traffic through your funnel. To achieve a good conversion rate and drive tons of sales, it’s important to continually test new approaches out.

For instance, perhaps you may want to change up the copy or images in your sales funnels. Perhaps you may want to experiment with different types of sales funnels. Maybe you want to experiment with new traffic sources.

No matter what aspects of your marketing approach to change it’s important to always keep track of your results and measure how changes impact your sales funnel’s performance. 

As the summer gets into full swing and Q3 approaches, the familiar lead generation slump hits. We’ve all been there: people start taking vacations, stop answering their phones, and your sales team starts getting antsy for more SQLs. Oh, and there’s also the whole cookieless internet thing, where first-party data collection on websites is more important than ever.

It’s prime time to set up some fresh, new lead magnets!

Read on so you can:

• Learn what a lead magnet is.
• Get inspired by 25 lead magnet ideas and examples.
• Understand what you’ll need in order to create lead magnets for your business.

With these tips and examples, you’ll be well on your way to attracting more people to your business that you can convert into customers.

What is a lead magnet?

First, let’s define exactly what a lead magnet is.

Lead magnets are an incentivized marketing tool for increasing form fills. Typically, a business offers something free, but valuable, that target prospects will be willing to obtain in exchange for their information so that you can continue building the relationship. Plus, that information is all first-party data, which is becoming crucial in a cookieless world.

Lead magnets are often associated with the top of the funnel, but they can actually be used at every stage. After all, new prospects can slide into your funnel at any point. Or if they are entering in at the top, you’ll need a way to keep them engaged and moving along through. So consider lead magnets to be offers that both attract leads to your funnel and keep them there.

Some of the core categories of lead magnets include:

• Educational materials
• Proprietary data
• Prize-based incentives
• Time-sensitive information
• Free consultations and trials

As you can see, lead magnets can come in all sorts of flavors, and as marketers, it’s our job to pick the right type to attract, engage, and convert our prospects. So let’s look at some examples and ideas.

Quick note on these lead magnet ideas

I’ve categorized the ideas by stage of funnel, but I also know that every business has a different funnel and customer journey, so adapt these ideas accordingly.

Also, many of the content-based lead magnets are versatile. For example, a downloadable checklist could be used at the top of the funnel (wedding planning checklist) and in the middle (questions to ask before choosing a wedding planner).

The image below is top-of-funnel checklist, from a process management software company: “Effective Onboarding in 31 Steps.” A mid-funnel checklist for this same company might be something like “10 Features to Look for in an SOP Automation Software Provider.”

Top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas

Lead magnets are the most fun at the top of the funnel. This gives you the most creative leeway to come up with fun ideas to entice your target audience while showing off a fun side of your brand.

These lead magnets can be topically broad compared to your product or service—but related in some sense. Remember, this is the awareness stage of your funnel. Your prospects may not even know you exist!

You’ll definitely want to put these leads through a nurture flow so that the ones that reach sales reps have intent to buy.

For top-of-funnel lead magnets, you don’t need a form requiring details. Just first name, last name, and email will do. Make sure that each lead magnet is properly tagged with a lead source so you can track the ROI down the road.

1. Giveaways

First up, giveaways. There is plenty of finesse that goes into planning and executing a giveaway, but we won’t go into all that here. What you need to know is that giveaways are great lead magnets!

Get your prospects in the door with a variety of giveaway options, from free NBA tickets to a discounted annual subscription to your product. Keep in mind that the quality of your leads will vary depending on how relevant your offering is to your product or service.

While Instagram giveaways are a great way to expand your reach and brand awareness, you’re not going to get any leads unless you have entrants DM you with their email addresses. Instead, create a landing page on your website for the giveaway, and then share that link in your social media posts.

2. Face-to-face field marketing

Field marketers interact directly with potential customers, such as at trade shows, networking events, and conferences. They employ a mix of sales and marketing expertise to educate, inform, and persuade prospects to engage with your brand. Have your field marketers collect emails to keep in touch! You’re not likely to get a high volume of leads in this manner, but the quality of the leads will be excellent.

3. Influencer collaborations

Seems like everyone and their mom is trying to be an influencer these days. Who can blame them, with all the TikTok and YouTube fame being tossed around? This is the perfect time to test out lead generation through micro-influencers.

Find an influencer in your niche, sponsor a couple posts, and collect your leads. Remember to tag them properly, especially if you choose to pay influencers on a commission or per-lead basis.

4. Blog post downloads

Visitors coming to your blog are most likely in the awareness and information-gathering stage, so focus on free and easy offers here. Free and easy for you too! Simply offer to send the post (or an abridged version) to their inbox so they can read later. All they need to do is fill out their email address. How convenient!

5. Free tools

If you didn’t already notice, we offer a variety of free tools for business owners and marketers, and it’s a win-win: They get free professional assistance that will help them get more sales, and we acquire leads who might actually increase our sales as well. High-five.

You can try out the Google Ads Grader, Facebook Ads Grader, and Google My Business Grader any time! (See what we did there?)

More top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas:

6. How-to and examples content (i.e., a free guide on how to write a networking email, or networking email examples)

7. Podcasting

8. Idea generators

9. Cheatsheets

A lead magnet about lead magnets. Whoah.

Mid-funnel lead magnet ideas

Okay, this is when lead magnets get a little more serious. Prospects entering into the middle of your funnel are aware of and interested in your business. Mid-funnel lead magnets should be at least slightly related to your product or brand, but if you’re at the mid-to-top level, you can still dance around it a little bit more.

For mid-funnel lead magnets, you may want to ask for more information than just email address. This may include name, company name, email, and whatever qualifiers will help you. For example, I like to ask my prospects to select with compliance framework they are interested in. This informs the content I send their way down the line and helps my sales team pitch more accurately.

And make sure you continue nurturing these leads! Your sales team might be eager to get on the phone with these more qualified leads, but tag them and place them into a nurture stream where they belong. Don’t scare them off with heavy-handed sales tactics.

10. Webinars

Webinars are all the rage these days. I’m a big fan of virtual lunch-and-learns, particularly featuring how-tos or trending topics. Even better, any webinar can be recorded and reused, or emailed out as part of a nurture campaign.

If you’re hosting a webinar, make sure to ask your participants what questions they’d like answered during the session–you can glean more engagement and information from leads that way.

11. Checklists

If your product helps streamline a solution or gives your team intimate knowledge into a niche process, checklists give you a high-level, low-effort way to share that know-how. Hot tip: downloadable checklists typically perform well in Google ad campaigns.

12. Free templates

I’m a sucker for resume templates. I can’t help it; every time I am editing a resume, I need to find a new design. And as a result, a crazy amount of companies hawking resume templates have my email address.

Offer a template for something that you would consider yourself an expert on. For example, how to design a project management flow. Or a notion.io content marketing calendar (I’m in the market for one!).

Templates are more mid-funnel compared to examples, since the prospect is not just looking for ideas anymore, but ready to put pen to paper and get down to it.

More mid-funnel lead magnet ideas

13. Original data reports

14. Product comparisons

15. Email courses

Bottom-of-funnel lead magnet ideas

These lead magnet ideas are for the cream-of-the-crop prospects. They might already know your brand and trust your content. This is the opportunity to show that your product is right for them.

16. Case studies

Case studies can be a snoozefest. It’s easy to go wrong with these, but if you add a little extra ‘oomph’ to the content, you could have a great download on your hands.

While most companies will share a case study with a title like, “X company helped Y company increase revenue by 50%! See how we did it.” And there is nothing wrong with that. But if you take the time to insert actionable data and insights into your case study, it’ll make it worth an email submission.

17. Product picker

This might be my favorite type of lead magnet. I know, you probably thought I was going to say whitepapers were my bread-and-butter but WHEW. I love quizzes.

Why are they so great? It’s the best time to show off your authority on a niche topic in an engaging way. This is great for leads who are ready to buy, but don’t know what exactly they want. My company, Laika, has a quiz to see which compliance framework is right for your business.

18. Partner referral discounts

You’ll likely need to get any type of discount cleared with your department heads and sales teams. But discounts are powerful hooks; everyone loves to save money.

I recommend reaching out to your partners to let them know that anyone who submits their information with a specific code or through a certain page will receive a percent off the purchase of your product.

You can also do this with customers who have had a good experience! Referrals are like good reviews, they hold a lot of weight with prospects doing investigation into a new company.

19. Event tickets

Everyone loves free stuff. I had some coworkers who created email addresses specifically to enter contests to win concert tickets. While I hope your prospects won’t do the same, you could run a promotion where those who sign up for a free demo or consultation will be entered into a random drawing for free tickets to a conference.

You decide the event, and let the leads pour in.

20. Early access

Releasing a new feature? Testing new copy or UX? Advertise it to prospects. You can learn about their behaviors while shaping your offering to their exact tastes.

Plenty of mobile games and apps already utilize beta versions and early access. If you offer an app in the Google Play Store or the Apple Store, you can enter it onto a list for users to access in beta. Even Disneyland has extended early hours for visitors to get early access to the rides!

21. Free trial

Trial your product or service for free, for a limited time only! There are plenty of examples of free trials out there, but the trick is to make yours seem exclusive, urgent, and the best way to get a taste of your amazing company.

22. Newsletter referrals

By now, most people have heard of The Skimm. They grew their subscribers in a big way through referrals! You could track how many referrals you had from a unique link and get rewarded along the way.

More bottom-funnel lead magnet ideas

23. Discounts or sales promotions

24. Free shipping

25. Free quote or consultation

How to create a lead magnet for your business

Assuming you want to start generating more leads, I’m going to finish off with tips on creating lead magnets for your prospects.

For the actual lead magnet, you’ll need:

Make sure your landing page copy and design matches the original offer, as well as your CTA. For example, if you’re luring prospects in with a promise of 15% off for subscribing to your email list, your CTA after filling out the form should be “get my 15% off coupon.”

I also recommend a website pop-up tool. There are plenty of platforms today that enable you to create tasteful popups and use specific criteria to trigger them—such as page their on, topic of blog post they’re reading, whether or not they’re a returning visitor, where they came in from, and more.

And finally, since you’re going to be generating more leads now, you’ll first want to invest in marketing automation software to track, segment, and nurture them. In this remote world, I recommend Marketo, Hubspot, or ActOn.

Lead magnet ideas [recap]

Here are the 25 lead magnet ideas and examples covered in this post:

1. Giveaways
2. Face-to-face field marketing
3. Influencer collaborations
4. Blog post downloads
5. Free tools
6. How-to and examples content
7. Podcasting
8. Idea generators
9. Cheatsheets
10. Webinars
11. Checklists
12. Templates
13. Original data reports
14. Product comparisons
15. Email courses
16. Case studies
17. Product pickers
18. Partner referral discounts
19. Event tickets
20. Early access
21. Free trials
22. Newsletter referrals
23. Discounts and promo codes
24. Free shipping
25. Free quote or consultation

Have any tried and true lead magnet ideas that we missed? Share your landing pages and forms; we want to sign up!

---

As the summer gets into full swing and Q3 approaches, the familiar lead generation slump hits. We’ve all been there: people start taking vacations, stop answering their phones, and your sales team starts getting antsy for more SQLs. Oh, and there’s also the whole cookieless internet thing, where first-party data collection on websites is more important than ever.

It’s prime time to set up some fresh, new lead magnets!

Read on so you can:

• Learn what a lead magnet is.
• Get inspired by 25 lead magnet ideas and examples.
• Understand what you’ll need in order to create lead magnets for your business.

With these tips and examples, you’ll be well on your way to attracting more people to your business that you can convert into customers.

What is a lead magnet?

First, let’s define exactly what a lead magnet is.

Lead magnets are an incentivized marketing tool for increasing form fills. Typically, a business offers something free, but valuable, that target prospects will be willing to obtain in exchange for their information so that you can continue building the relationship. Plus, that information is all first-party data, which is becoming crucial in a cookieless world.

Lead magnets are often associated with the top of the funnel, but they can actually be used at every stage. After all, new prospects can slide into your funnel at any point. Or if they are entering in at the top, you’ll need a way to keep them engaged and moving along through. So consider lead magnets to be offers that both attract leads to your funnel and keep them there.

Some of the core categories of lead magnets include:

• Educational materials
• Proprietary data
• Prize-based incentives
• Time-sensitive information
• Free consultations and trials

As you can see, lead magnets can come in all sorts of flavors, and as marketers, it’s our job to pick the right type to attract, engage, and convert our prospects. So let’s look at some examples and ideas.

Quick note on these lead magnet ideas

I’ve categorized the ideas by stage of funnel, but I also know that every business has a different funnel and customer journey, so adapt these ideas accordingly.

Also, many of the content-based lead magnets are versatile. For example, a downloadable checklist could be used at the top of the funnel (wedding planning checklist) and in the middle (questions to ask before choosing a wedding planner).

The image below is top-of-funnel checklist, from a process management software company: “Effective Onboarding in 31 Steps.” A mid-funnel checklist for this same company might be something like “10 Features to Look for in an SOP Automation Software Provider.”

Top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas

Lead magnets are the most fun at the top of the funnel. This gives you the most creative leeway to come up with fun ideas to entice your target audience while showing off a fun side of your brand.

These lead magnets can be topically broad compared to your product or service—but related in some sense. Remember, this is the awareness stage of your funnel. Your prospects may not even know you exist!

You’ll definitely want to put these leads through a nurture flow so that the ones that reach sales reps have intent to buy.

For top-of-funnel lead magnets, you don’t need a form requiring details. Just first name, last name, and email will do. Make sure that each lead magnet is properly tagged with a lead source so you can track the ROI down the road.

1. Giveaways

First up, giveaways. There is plenty of finesse that goes into planning and executing a giveaway, but we won’t go into all that here. What you need to know is that giveaways are great lead magnets!

Get your prospects in the door with a variety of giveaway options, from free NBA tickets to a discounted annual subscription to your product. Keep in mind that the quality of your leads will vary depending on how relevant your offering is to your product or service.

While Instagram giveaways are a great way to expand your reach and brand awareness, you’re not going to get any leads unless you have entrants DM you with their email addresses. Instead, create a landing page on your website for the giveaway, and then share that link in your social media posts.

2. Face-to-face field marketing

Field marketers interact directly with potential customers, such as at trade shows, networking events, and conferences. They employ a mix of sales and marketing expertise to educate, inform, and persuade prospects to engage with your brand. Have your field marketers collect emails to keep in touch! You’re not likely to get a high volume of leads in this manner, but the quality of the leads will be excellent.

3. Influencer collaborations

Seems like everyone and their mom is trying to be an influencer these days. Who can blame them, with all the TikTok and YouTube fame being tossed around? This is the perfect time to test out lead generation through micro-influencers.

Find an influencer in your niche, sponsor a couple posts, and collect your leads. Remember to tag them properly, especially if you choose to pay influencers on a commission or per-lead basis.

4. Blog post downloads

Visitors coming to your blog are most likely in the awareness and information-gathering stage, so focus on free and easy offers here. Free and easy for you too! Simply offer to send the post (or an abridged version) to their inbox so they can read later. All they need to do is fill out their email address. How convenient!

5. Free tools

If you didn’t already notice, we offer a variety of free tools for business owners and marketers, and it’s a win-win: They get free professional assistance that will help them get more sales, and we acquire leads who might actually increase our sales as well. High-five.

You can try out the Google Ads Grader, Facebook Ads Grader, and Google My Business Grader any time! (See what we did there?)

More top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas:

6. How-to and examples content (i.e., a free guide on how to write a networking email, or networking email examples)

7. Podcasting

8. Idea generators

9. Cheatsheets

A lead magnet about lead magnets. Whoah.

Mid-funnel lead magnet ideas

Okay, this is when lead magnets get a little more serious. Prospects entering into the middle of your funnel are aware of and interested in your business. Mid-funnel lead magnets should be at least slightly related to your product or brand, but if you’re at the mid-to-top level, you can still dance around it a little bit more.

For mid-funnel lead magnets, you may want to ask for more information than just email address. This may include name, company name, email, and whatever qualifiers will help you. For example, I like to ask my prospects to select with compliance framework they are interested in. This informs the content I send their way down the line and helps my sales team pitch more accurately.

And make sure you continue nurturing these leads! Your sales team might be eager to get on the phone with these more qualified leads, but tag them and place them into a nurture stream where they belong. Don’t scare them off with heavy-handed sales tactics.

10. Webinars

Webinars are all the rage these days. I’m a big fan of virtual lunch-and-learns, particularly featuring how-tos or trending topics. Even better, any webinar can be recorded and reused, or emailed out as part of a nurture campaign.

If you’re hosting a webinar, make sure to ask your participants what questions they’d like answered during the session–you can glean more engagement and information from leads that way.

11. Checklists

If your product helps streamline a solution or gives your team intimate knowledge into a niche process, checklists give you a high-level, low-effort way to share that know-how. Hot tip: downloadable checklists typically perform well in Google ad campaigns.

12. Free templates

I’m a sucker for resume templates. I can’t help it; every time I am editing a resume, I need to find a new design. And as a result, a crazy amount of companies hawking resume templates have my email address.

Offer a template for something that you would consider yourself an expert on. For example, how to design a project management flow. Or a notion.io content marketing calendar (I’m in the market for one!).

Templates are more mid-funnel compared to examples, since the prospect is not just looking for ideas anymore, but ready to put pen to paper and get down to it.

More mid-funnel lead magnet ideas

13. Original data reports

14. Product comparisons

15. Email courses

Bottom-of-funnel lead magnet ideas

These lead magnet ideas are for the cream-of-the-crop prospects. They might already know your brand and trust your content. This is the opportunity to show that your product is right for them.

16. Case studies

Case studies can be a snoozefest. It’s easy to go wrong with these, but if you add a little extra ‘oomph’ to the content, you could have a great download on your hands.

While most companies will share a case study with a title like, “X company helped Y company increase revenue by 50%! See how we did it.” And there is nothing wrong with that. But if you take the time to insert actionable data and insights into your case study, it’ll make it worth an email submission.

17. Product picker

This might be my favorite type of lead magnet. I know, you probably thought I was going to say whitepapers were my bread-and-butter but WHEW. I love quizzes.

Why are they so great? It’s the best time to show off your authority on a niche topic in an engaging way. This is great for leads who are ready to buy, but don’t know what exactly they want. My company, Laika, has a quiz to see which compliance framework is right for your business.

18. Partner referral discounts

You’ll likely need to get any type of discount cleared with your department heads and sales teams. But discounts are powerful hooks; everyone loves to save money.

I recommend reaching out to your partners to let them know that anyone who submits their information with a specific code or through a certain page will receive a percent off the purchase of your product.

You can also do this with customers who have had a good experience! Referrals are like good reviews, they hold a lot of weight with prospects doing investigation into a new company.

19. Event tickets

Everyone loves free stuff. I had some coworkers who created email addresses specifically to enter contests to win concert tickets. While I hope your prospects won’t do the same, you could run a promotion where those who sign up for a free demo or consultation will be entered into a random drawing for free tickets to a conference.

You decide the event, and let the leads pour in.

20. Early access

Releasing a new feature? Testing new copy or UX? Advertise it to prospects. You can learn about their behaviors while shaping your offering to their exact tastes.

Plenty of mobile games and apps already utilize beta versions and early access. If you offer an app in the Google Play Store or the Apple Store, you can enter it onto a list for users to access in beta. Even Disneyland has extended early hours for visitors to get early access to the rides!

21. Free trial

Trial your product or service for free, for a limited time only! There are plenty of examples of free trials out there, but the trick is to make yours seem exclusive, urgent, and the best way to get a taste of your amazing company.

22. Newsletter referrals

By now, most people have heard of The Skimm. They grew their subscribers in a big way through referrals! You could track how many referrals you had from a unique link and get rewarded along the way.

More bottom-funnel lead magnet ideas

23. Discounts or sales promotions

24. Free shipping

25. Free quote or consultation

How to create a lead magnet for your business

Assuming you want to start generating more leads, I’m going to finish off with tips on creating lead magnets for your prospects.

For the actual lead magnet, you’ll need:

Make sure your landing page copy and design matches the original offer, as well as your CTA. For example, if you’re luring prospects in with a promise of 15% off for subscribing to your email list, your CTA after filling out the form should be “get my 15% off coupon.”

I also recommend a website pop-up tool. There are plenty of platforms today that enable you to create tasteful popups and use specific criteria to trigger them—such as page their on, topic of blog post they’re reading, whether or not they’re a returning visitor, where they came in from, and more.

And finally, since you’re going to be generating more leads now, you’ll first want to invest in marketing automation software to track, segment, and nurture them. In this remote world, I recommend Marketo, Hubspot, or ActOn.

Lead magnet ideas [recap]

Here are the 25 lead magnet ideas and examples covered in this post:

1. Giveaways
2. Face-to-face field marketing
3. Influencer collaborations
4. Blog post downloads
5. Free tools
6. How-to and examples content
7. Podcasting
8. Idea generators
9. Cheatsheets
10. Webinars
11. Checklists
12. Templates
13. Original data reports
14. Product comparisons
15. Email courses
16. Case studies
17. Product pickers
18. Partner referral discounts
19. Event tickets
20. Early access
21. Free trials
22. Newsletter referrals
23. Discounts and promo codes
24. Free shipping
25. Free quote or consultation

Have any tried and true lead magnet ideas that we missed? Share your landing pages and forms; we want to sign up!

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